Irish neutrality is a foreign policy tradition stretching back centuries. Theobald Wolfe Tone, Daniel O’Connell and James Connolly have advocated for neutrality to strengthen Irish independence and self-determination and prevent militarism. In case no one has noticed, militarism is a leading cause of war.
Small countries have been sceptical of the intentions of military blocks. Military blocks develop their military actions around their own economic objectives. The US war in Iraq and the Middle East had more to do with oil than peace. Denmark lost as many soldiers per capita as the USA, in Afghanistan, because of its membership of the NATO. Imagine if Ireland had sent our young men and women to their deaths in Afghanistan.
Ireland would have little or no influence on the decisions of large military blocks. Yet we would have to send our young men and women to fight and die in their wars. This is the stark reality that most EU hawks never discuss. Ireland has little influence on the EU as it stands. We have outsourced large amounts of economic, political and foreign policy to the EU already. We should not outsource anymore. The Brussels bubble doesn’t seem to realise, but the people of the EU increasingly want to see powers devolved away from Brussels back to the nation states. This is a key objective of Aontú. The biggest threat to the EU now, is more EU.
Ireland has a proud history of neutrality. Our record of our own peace process, our missionaries helping all around the world, our role in UN peacekeeping, our campaign for nuclear non-proliferation and support for decolonization has given us an internationally recognised reputation of an honest broker. We should be using that record as a catalyst for peace. However we have never exercised this competency in the manner other countries have. The Oslo Accords were real efforts by Norway to broker peace between Israel and Palestine.
Let’s be honest FF and FG have trashed our defence forces with decades of underspending. Irish defence forces numbers have collapsed in recent years. The government has refused to pay proper pay terms and conditions leaving some Irish soldiers sleeping in cars because they can’t afford rent. The situation is so bad in the Naval Services that can hardly float one naval vessel currently. Ireland spends 0.2% of our GDP on our defence forces. This is one of the lowest amounts in the whole of the EU. You cannot be properly neutral unless you are willing to pay for your defence. We do need to increase that spending up to 1% of GDP to ensure that we can protect our land, sea and skys. Ireland has a competitive disadvantage as a militarily power. We should focus our skills on what we are good at, de-escalation and peace processes.
A key safeguard of Irish neutrality is the Triple Lock. Neutrality means military nonalignment. The triple lock prevents Ireland from being militarily aligned to any military block. When large military blocks such as the USA, Russia and China are in opposition on the Security Council, taking sides with either group, is by definition alignment with one military block and in opposition with the other. The Triple Lock prevents this. It means Ireland defences forces will only participate when military blocks on the same page. The Triple Lock guarantees our troops the legitimacy of UN authority in peacekeeping. This is important because in world affairs war is often packaged as peace. Peace is often a euphemism. 600,000 people were killed in the Iraq war in the name of peace.
Many within the EU have being pushing hard for the development of an EU Defence Union. Ursula Von Der Leyen stated as much in her campaign for re-election as President of the EU Commission. Have no doubt our government has supported every loss of sovereignty to the EU over the last 20 years. The Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Independents Government seek to delete the triple lock to facilitate Irelands participation in future EU Defence Union military actions.
Mícheal Martin supports changes in EU Treaties to reduce the power of nation states to determine EU decisions on issues such as defence, the military and security. The Tánaiste is on the record as supporting the deployment of Irish troops to future EU military missions. And now the Triple Lock is under fire.
None of this is accidental. All these steps are choreographed. cThat’s what the EU is doing. The EU is using the war in Ukraine to speed defence integration.
The triple lock was introduced in 2001, after the defeat of the Nice referendum. When the referendum was defeated, the government noted that one of the main public concerns with the treaty was about a potential erosion of Irish neutrality. The Triple Lock was an essential part of passing of the Nice Treaty. As such Aontú demand that any change to the Triple Lock should be by way of a referendum.
The government don’t want a referendum. Why? Because the overwhelming majority of Irish people support Irish neutrality in its current form. It would be a profound kick in the teeth to Irish democracy if this government delete the last protection of Irish neutrality.
Peadar Tóibin, TD Meath West