Pete Doherty tells Hot Press he's planning to apply for Irish citizenship

The new issue of Hot Press, out today with those lovely Fontaines D.C. boys on the cover, includes a fascinating and wide-ranging interview with Pete Doherty.

Clean, recently married and living in a beautiful Normandy farmhouse, Pete is justifiably proud of the new album, The Fantasy Life Of Poetry & Crime, that he's assembled with French composer and new bezzie, Frédéric Lo.

"I'm not a reformed character but, y'know, I'm not a heroin addict anymore," he tells us. "I didn't have a phone for a while. I've been off the grid. I was recuperating."

Pete goes on to reveal that's he's interested in applying for Irish citizenship.
“I was thinking of having a stab at that as because you just need blood, right? Just need a grandparent that is 100% Irish. Would I be able to keep my British passport?”
Yep.
“Okay, Ted Doherty was from Waterford. He was a seaman, a navy man, and then he worked on British Rail.”

Pete's Irishness extends to be a being a Wolfe Tones fans, with their tribute to the Irish founder of the Irish navy, 'Admiral William Brown', a particular favourite.
“The Wolfe Tones are fucking great!” he enthuses. “I know that song because Carl Barât plays it and Shane (MacGowan) does sometimes too. Those rebel songs are powerful… ‘Some say the devil is dead…’ Ireland is just so rich culturally."

Also up for discussion are Morrissey and The Smiths (“The Libertines supported him in the Brixton Academy when we were on the up and climbing the greasy pole"); the Libertines reunion (“With Carl it’s quite intense. Suddenly we’re sucked into this vacuum together"); proposing to the new Mrs. Doherty ("I did it properly and got down on one knee on a Greek island"); and lots, lots more!