Are some Brexiters applying for a Irish Passport?

I have often told of the time I spent living in London or rather Camden Town and spent my drinking time in an absolutely splendid Irish  Pub called the Stag's Head.

It attracted many Irish expats and a fair number of second and third generation , who considered themselves more Irish than English.

I remember a somewhat obnoxious person ,  whose claim to be Half-Irish was met by the Bar managers (Who possesed a sharp Dublin wit) retort

"Not the top half I assume"

The Guardian reports that 

The number of British citizens applying for Irish passports rose by 22% in 2018, Ireland’s foreign office said on Monday, more than doubling the total of annual applications since Britain voted to leave the European Union.
Almost 100,000 eligible Britons sought to hang onto their EU citizenship via a passport from their nearest neighbour this year, up from 81,000 last yearand 46,000 in 2015, the year before the Brexit vote led to a sharp rise in applications.Food prices to finance: what a no-deal Brexit could mean for Britain
Anybody born in the Irish Republic or Northern Ireland, or with an Irish parent or grandparent, is entitled to an Irish passport – a total of about 6 million British citizens. They are able to hold dual citizenship.
Registrations for Irish passports in Northern Ireland, whose citizens can hold both an Irish and British passport as the province is part of the United Kingdom, rose by 2% in the year to the end of December.
With three months left until the UK is due to leave the EU on 29 March, the draft divorce deal reached between both sides is floundering ahead of a planned vote in the British parliament next month, opening up a range of possibilities from a Brexit without a trade deal to calling it off entirely.

 I assume that many have always , considerd themselves Irish if not by blood but by inclination and as a Welshman who has many relatives  born and raised across the boarder, who will always claim to be Welsh first  and who would on Wales being independent seek a Welsh passport good luck to them.

I wonder however how many of the Irish applicants voted for Brexit,  and are the sought of people  who would approve of the The cricket test, also known as the Tebbit test,  a controversial phrase coined in April 1990 by the British Conservative politician Norman Tebbit in reference to the perceived lack of loyalty to the England cricket team among South Asian and Caribbean immigrants and their children. Tebbit suggested that those immigrants who support their native countries rather than England at the sport of cricket are not significantly integrated into the United Kingdom.^[

I have always felt that the test for being Welsh has always been if you say you are , and you can also have a strong affinity for  a country of origin  no matter how far back that goes.

You can be Welsh (and Insert Nation here) and the same should apply to every country  including Ireland.

I just wonder how many of those receiving an Irish passport in 2019 , are doing so for convenience  and who deny  a UK Passport , whether Red or Blue) to many of those who  live or would seek to live in these Islands.