I'm a Northern Irish student with an Irish passport, and I'll be applying for two Scottish Unis in September. We've known about this loophole for a few months, but I just saw the news report and apparently we get free fees as EU nationals and student loan as UK residents.
Personally, although I think it's awesome, it's probably not fair at all. I mean yes, a lot of people here identify as Irish and have Irish passports and you can't tell them otherwise just because they're applying to university, but honestly if you live in Belfast you're a UK resident. That's not Ireland.
Pretty sure everyone already there applied as a UK student and therefore pay their fees. It's only if you apply as an EU national that you get into the loophole.