Here’s Leo Varadkar, talking relatively tough about Ireland’s capacity to defend itself at the Munich Security Council, and taking apparently grave offence at the idea that Ireland is dependent on His Majesty’s Royal Navy and Air Force to defend our territory in the event of attack:
TAOISEACH LEO VARADKAR struck a defensive tone while speaking at the Munich Security Council 2024 today, taking issue with an assertion that Ireland is reliant on the UK’s armed forces for the protection of its territorial waters and undersea cables.
“In relation to protecting our seas, we have our own navy, it’s not as strong as it needs to be, and we’ve entered into agreements with Pesco and Nato’s Partnership for Peace which particularly relate to the cables that are around the island which are important to us, and also important to our neighbours,” the Taoiseach said.
“I’m not aware of any particular UK intervention that’s helped us in that regard.”
He was responding to a question from Cambridge international relations professor Brendan Simms, who was in the audience.
All very clear, all very patriotic. The problem is that here’s Leo Varadkar, speaking in the Dáil just one year ago:
“We make the assumption that if we are attacked, the British and the Americans will come and save us.”
The contradiction in his two statements could be explained, of course, if there had been some meaningful change in Ireland’s capacity to defend itself over the past twelve months, but of course there has not been any such change.
The differences in his two statements might perhaps be best explained by his audience: At the Munich Security Council, he was being listened to by the great and the good of Europe, and a patriotic instinct towards defending the honour of the country might have taken over: If there’s one thing a proud Irishman might not like, it’s the idea of the Germans and the French and the rest of them thinking of this country as a defence freeloader. Therefore, to that audience, the accusation must be robustly denied.
Speaking in the Dáil, by contrast, where he is less likely to be noticed for his comments on the international stage, he can do the “lookit, we all know the score here lads” act for a domestic audience, and admit that the country doesn’t have a defence capability worthy of the name, and that we are, in fact, entirely reliant on the Americans and them across the water if we’re attacked. No doubt if we were attacked, the line would be that it was probably the fault of the Americans and the Brits anyway, and poor old Ireland is just collateral damage. It would take the country at large approximately thirty seconds to arrive, in those circumstances, at the collective conclusion that Britain and the United States basically have an obligation to send their own young men to die in our defence.
In any case, it’s notable because Varadkar’s comments in the Dáil last year were, at least as far as I can see, the first on the record admission from an Irish leader that an assumption of UK/US aid, should it be needed, will be provided. He’s now essentially contradicting himself by arguing that such aid is not needed, and, perhaps most amusingly, that he is “unaware of any particular UK intervention that’s helped us in that regard”.
Of course, he is not “unaware”, nor could he reasonably claim to be.
It is an evident statement of fact, for example, that this country does not possess either submarines or, more pertinently, the capability to detect submarines operating in our waters. And indeed, this was news just two months ago:
The UK had to come to Ireland’s aid as a Russian submarine was “hovering” just 12 miles away from Cork Harbour.
The incident happened six months ago, and details have been emerging.
It is reported the British Royal Navy sent a helicopter to drop sonar technology into the water, before sending an anti-submarine boat.
Security and defence analyst Declan Power said Britain often finds out about these things before we do.
Is the Taoiseach really claiming that he is unaware of an incident where the Royal Air Force sent forces to drop detection technology into Irish waters, or that an anti-submarine boat was despatched off our coastline by the Royal Navy? If the Taoiseach is unaware of that, then that is deeply troubling.
Perhaps, of course, he might argue that the intervention was not one that “helped” Ireland, in which case his opinion could only be interpreted to mean that in the case of foreign submarines operating in Irish waters, ignorance is bliss. Either we were helped by the UK revealing the existence of the submarine, or we weren’t helped because we didn’t really want to know.
The extent to which any of this matters to voters, of course, is apparently and obviously not much. After all, the truth is that most people share the assumptions that the Taoiseach made in the Dáil, which is that Uncle Sam and Grandpa Charles will come to our aid should we need it, and we need not worry our little Hibernian heads about it at all. Indeed, voters probably even approve of our ingratitude towards the Brits in particular and the assertion that they’re not really even helping us. Varadkar won’t be damaged in that regard.
I do wonder, though, what his European colleagues will make of it all. I can tell you for a fact that at least one European Union Embassy noticed, and particularly noticed the Taoiseach’s apparent unawareness of a Russian Submarine operating in our own waters. While I am not permitted to attribute quotes to the diplomatic outpost in question, it’s fair to describe the reaction as withering.
Oh well.