Urgent passport advice?

Hello, I'm based in Belfast and am due to travel to England in three weeks time for a diploma course. I booked Easyjet flights to Birmingham, then afterwards noticed my driving license was out of date. Last year, I was put on a one year medical license. I have only very recently found out that on two separate occasions, my consultant failed to send a report to the DVLA, and so they will not renew my license, and my consultant has now left her place of work, don't know where she's gone, she's the one who's got the paperwork or her admin staff threw it in the bin when she left, don't know that either, and basically my license, through no fault of my own, won't get renewed in the next three weeks. Easyjet allows you to fly with a fairly recently expired passport, but not with an expired driving license.


So I then booked ferries over, as the Stena website says they will let you travel with just a utility bill, but it's an overnight, 8-hour haul which I won't sleep on and which leaves me in Birkenhead at 6am on a Sunday morning, with the first train I can get not available til two and a half hours later. So I will still get to my course one way or another, but I'd definitely rather fly.


Can anyone advise me on whether or not I could get an urgent passport if I haven't held a British one before, and have held an Irish one which is now 20 years out of date (I only ever fly domestically and my driving license was always fine for that)? I don't care whether I get an Irish or British one, I just want an urgent one. I was told by a woman in the Post Office that if I reapply for an Irish one, because it expired so long ago, my application will be treated as if it was a first time application, but I didn't ask her about urgent ones, as I didn't realise until I read the form how long normal ones take.


I do remember getting an urgent one, the Irish one, about thirty years ago by going and sitting in the passport office in Belfast, but I don't know if procedures have changed, and someone told me I might now have to go to Dublin for an urgent Irish one. I'd rather not have to do that but might consider it if I can't get an urgent British one in Belfast.


I know that the best people to ask are the passport offices but I know that if I do that on Monday, I'll probably be on hold for a total of about three hours between the two of them. I will end up ringing one or both of them on Monday anyway, but I'm just trying to get a heads up in here. I'll still get to my course so it's not critical, it's just to save me a lot of extra travel time.


Thanks in advance.