It must necessarily be up to the country to decide what "ties to the country" even means anyway. It's important to the Irish Republic for example that everybody with connections to the island of Ireland counts as Irish, even though de facto a corner of their island is occupied by people who (to a lesser or greater extent) insist they're British and are no longer part of the EU unlike the Republic. That's how lots of British people have Irish EU passports, if they were born on the island or have strong connections to it, they're just as entitled to a passport as if they'd been born in Dublin, in the Republic.

It was interesting to see in that budget that Tuvalu earns more from .tv than they do from operating an "Open Registry" (aka "Flag of Convenience") for foreign shipping companies, which is probably the most analogous arrangement to selling domains in your ccTLD from the past.

Northern Ireland is de facto and de jure part of the UK. And "British people with Irish passports" may just as well be written "Irish people with UK connections". It's worth noting that people living in Great Britain often have passports by virtue of being a "foreign birth" since you may be considered Irish just by having an Irish (great-)grandparent.

Finally, as a sibling comment mentions, the state is called "Ireland" and though it is accurately described as the "Irish republic" or similar, that's not part of the official name.

Otherwise you're right and I agree with your point.

Ireland is an unusual case because we grant citizenship based on your connection to the island rather than the country, ie pretty much anyone entitled to British citizenship on the basis of being from Northern Ireland is also entitled to an Irish citizenship.

Specifically you can be entitled to citizenship from birth if either of the following conditions are met:

- at least one parent is an Irish citizen or entitled to be one and was born on the island of Ireland

- you are born anywhere on the island of Ireland (including Northern Ireland) and at least one parent is an Irish or British citizen, a permanent resident of Ireland or Northern Ireland, or has been domiciled on the island of Ireland for 3 of the past 4 years

You're no longer automatically entitled to Irish citizenship via a grandparent born in Ireland if your Irish parent was born overseas unless the parent's birth was registered with an Irish diplomatic mission.

> "British people with Irish passports" may just as well be written "Irish people with UK connections".

We normally characterise people by how they self-describe. These people would describe themselves as British, but they have Irish passports, often because these are EU passports and thus convenient whereas post-Brexit the British passport incurs border checks at neighbouring countries, because "Cut off your nose to spite your face" isn't just an English saying it's also apparently Tory policy.

This is a certainly a nitpick, and pet peeve, but the Irish Republic was a revolutionary state between roughly 1919-1922. The modern state is just known as Ireland, or referred to as the Republic of Ireland.

Fair, too late to correct now.

What happens when Tuvalu is uninhabitable due to rising sea level? If .tv continues to exist, does that money go to the Tuvaluan diaspora?

You could always just donate some money to Tuvalu and use a better TLD.