Colin Sheridan: What’s next for our selective neutrality?
We need to face up to the nuances and quirks of our neutrality while acknowledging the malaise in the Defence Forces charged to defend it, writes Colin Sheridan
Irish troops on Unifil duty with the 124th Irish-Polish battalion in Lebanon. 'Our military is far more comfortable in traditional peacekeeping roles rather than fighting a dubious enemy.' Picture: Defence Forces
Responding to a question asked by then TD Gino Kenny in May last year regarding a potential constitutional referendum on neutrality, then tánaiste Micheál Martin provided a written answer: “Our policy of military neutrality, as practised by successive Governments over many decades, means Ireland does not participate in military alliances or common or mutual defence arrangements. As I have said in this House on many previous occasions, the Government has no plans to alter our long-standing policy of military neutrality, join a military alliance or enter into a mutual defence arrangement. As such, a referendum enshrining Ireland’s neutrality in the Constitution is not necessary or appropriate.”
As responses to parliamentary questions go, it was a rather definitive one. Our neutrality, our military neutrality at least, was not up for debate.
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