Tomás Ó Flatharta

The left campaign to defend the current Irish foreign policy of Neutrality should be supported – (more accurately the campaign should be styled Non-Alignment, in the sense of 100 per cent opposition to membership of NATO or any other imperialist military alliance).

Opponents of the Dublin government’s attempt to move closer to NATO got lucky.

Foreign Affairs Minister Micheál Martin set up a public “consultative” forum examining Irish foreign policy – which is designed to push the Irish state closer to NATO. President Michael D Higgins launched an effective public attack

Irish President Michael D Higgins Mocked a British Empire Dame from Waterford, Louise Richardson – Is this Expert a good choice to chair an Irish Public Forum on the Neutrality Foreign Policy?

Higgins forced the issue into the mainstream media. Otherwise, the Forum would have taken place with much less publicity. Opponents of the government cannot rely on a lucky break like that every time.

The Irish State has ignored its responsibility to police our skies and our seas. It allows other states – primarily Britain – to do that job. Today, in 2023, international global tensions have risen to an alarming degree, and a very serious imperialist and genocidal war is occurring in the heart of Europe, in Ukraine. Russian imperialism is threatening the Irish state’s balancing act. Putin’s regime has openly threatened military action against the Irish state. That should not be laughed off or ignored. That is the reason the Dublin government is under pressure to get involved with a military alliance.

Neutrality, in the strict and easily understood meaning of the word, is not a viable moral left-wing response to Russia’s genocidal imperialist invasion on Ukraine on February 24 2023.

Consider this history : The Irish state’s neutral foreign policy began in 1939, applied to World War 2. DeValera’s government refused to back Britain militarily against Nazi Germany. Britain occupied – and still occupies – the northern bit of Ireland. A tiny Trotskyist current, at that time, argued unsuccessfully for Irish neutrality that was also anti-fascist – and in favour of political asylum for refugees from the Nazis. The Irish state, at that time, was deeply anti-Semitic.

John Meehan June 30 2023

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 Brendan Ogle of the UNITE trade union addresses the concrete issues in a very clear manner :

IS IRELAND NEUTRAL?

First off I do not believe we should be joining #NATO and I’m appalled that Michael Martin seems to today to think that this cobbled together Government could, theoretically, align us with the military alliance states simply as ‘Government Policy’ without public mandate. I’d be interested in seeing him try it but I doubt he’s that daft. 

Now that I’ve said that I think a conversation on our military position is necessary. Is long overdue in fact. I’ll explain why below. Even more, I don’t believe we are neutral at all. We aren’t a neutral state. We are a vassal state. 

Strong? 

Ok. We have the British Royal Air Force policing our skies and until recently the British even paid to light our lighthouses. Worse, we have Russian war ships mustering at will off our coast and the USA perpetuating war crimes through Shannon for years now. We aren’t ‘non aligned’. We’re ‘open house’.

A neutral country would not allow these things and we need to address it. A start in addressing it would be to equip, and to start by properly paying, our tiny military. As a state we treat them and their families appallingly. 

But more than that we should at least have the capacity to monitor what’s going on in our own air space and seas. If we aren’t to be militarily aligned, and we shouldn’t be in my view, then having an open house ‘we haven’t a clue what’s going on’ approach to our countries defence cuts completely against neutrality.

As a truly neutral country our voice could be a powerful voice diplomatically, but not as a vassal state. 

Will this cost money? 

Yes, it will. It will cost about half what it would cost to join #NATO but 3 times what we spend on defence now, some of which would go to treating our military properly. 

Can we please stop this pretence that being neutral while anybody who likes has open access to our air and seas is somehow moral? It’s morally vacuous. Not quite as morally vacuous as De Valera’s Ireland sympathising with Germany on the death of Hitler and calling it ‘neutrality’, but morally vacuous all the same. 

And what’s ‘moral’ about the carry on through Shannon? 

There are those who would sign us up to #NATO in a heartbeat. There sure are. They can’t wait. But to see off that position requires a rational defence strategy that is fit for purpose, that at least allows us to monitor our seas and skies, that strengthens us diplomatically and that makes more sense than loudly shouting ‘neutrality’ long after it’s gone while refusing to engage in further thought or debate.

If we want to be truly neutral we need to act and fund that neutrality. Shouting is not enough.