Irish neutrality is under attack. The mainstream media organises regular debates where we are asked to consider whether it is ‘outdated’. Military experts claim that Ireland is unprotected. More significantly, the government has announced that it intends to remove the triple lock.
At present, a deployment of more than 12 Irish troops can only be sent abroad to participate in UN-authorised peacekeeping missions. The triple lock states that missions must be approved by the government, the Dáil, and the United Nations. In 2001, the Irish people voted no to the Nice Treaty, mainly because it threatened neutrality. The government got us to vote again but gave an assurance that neutrality would be protected by the triple lock. In 2013, Micheál Martin said that the triple lock is at “the core of our neutrality”.
But his government says it is going to use its Dáil majority to get rid of it. Behind these moves are attempts to bury Ireland’s historic legacy of anti-colonialism. A brief look at the origins of the policy of neutrality will show why it is intimately linked to opposition to imperial blocs.
The Origins of Irish Neutrality
The concept of Irish neutrality was first mooted during the First World War when James Connolly constructed a broad front to oppose Irish support for Britain’s war effort. The leader of the Home Rule Party, John Redmond, was a supporter of the war and urged members of the Irish Volunteer movement to enlist. In return for this support, Redmond claimed that he had been promised home rule and an Irish parliament once the war was over. Connolly, however, rejected this argument and set up an Irish Neutrality League alongside more militant republicans.
Connolly was right. The First World War is now universally condemned, but at the time, many people were swept up into the war propaganda. Redmond, for example, talked about the German attack on ”poor little Belgium” as a way of generating support. Eight million soldiers eventually died in this war, including 35,000 Irish, who were predominantly drawn from poor working-class quarters.
When the Second World War was declared on 1 September 1939, it was only 17 years since the Irish Free State had gained independence. In the two years prior to independence, the country had been subjected to a bitter colonial war, spearheaded by British auxiliary forces, colloquially known as the Black and Tans. Éamon de Valera and the Fianna Fáil government wanted to assert Irish independence from its old empire.
Three main considerations lay behind the adoption of a neutrality policy. The first was the partition that had been imposed on Ireland. Fianna Fáil, and the population more generally, regarded the division of Ireland as a historic wrong. Their sympathies lay with the nationalist population in the North, whom they regarded as being oppressed by the Unionist Party and the Orange Order. Military support for a colonial power that had imposed partition was, therefore, unthinkable.
The second was that the Irish ruling class feared that any other policy would have opened deep divisions in their own society and undermined the stability of their rule. Intervention on the side of Britain would have led to an outcry. If British troops landed in Ireland to repel a German invasion, there was little doubt that they would be subject to attacks not only from the IRA but also from sections of Fianna Fáil itself. Similarly, if the Irish government showed any support for Nazi Germany, there was little doubt they would be subject to British military intervention. No wonder, therefore, that Frank Aiken, the Minister responsible for the Coordination of Defensive Measures, noted that ”it might very well be that we would have another civil war to decide the question as to which of the European belligerents we would declare war upon.”
Thirdly, despite repeated reference to the wrongs of partition, Fianna Fáil used ”the Emergency” – as they referred to the Second World War – as an opportunity to forge a new 26-county ”Little Ireland” nationalism. As the writer Terence Brown later noted, ”neutrality and the experience of the war-time years mobilised Irish opinion for the first time to consider the 26-county state as the primary unit of national loyalty.” De Valera used “the Emergency” to crush the IRA, which he regarded as a threat to Fianna Fáil rule.
Irish neutrality thus arose from a complex set of factors, but at its root was Ireland’s anti-colonial legacy. When Britain claimed to be fighting for democracy and the rights of small nations, many in Ireland could not but think of Britain’s colonisation of Ireland and its continued oppression of countries such as India. Far from being an irrational, atavistic response, there were good reasons for Irish neutrality in the Second World War.
Whatever about its origins, Irish neutrality took on a life of its own in the decades afterwards. Under the Fianna Fáil Minister for Foreign Affairs, Frank Aiken, Ireland advocated an activist neutrality policy in the late 1950s. It refused to go along with American attempts to exclude China from representation at the United Nations. Aiken also advocated the withdrawal of non-national armies and military personnel in Europe. As a small country, Ireland promoted a policy of peace and indicated that, in a world divided by a Cold War, it would not join the Western military bloc. However, Ireland’s moderate stance never extended to the consistent non-aligned position that other former colonies adopted.
Nevertheless, the concept of neutrality and its underlying anti-colonial legacy is immensely popular. From the depths of Irish society, there has emerged significant scepticism and opposition to the machinations of world powers. There is a deep and healthy awareness of how US foreign policy is shaped by an imperialist agenda. Thus, tens of thousands marched against the visit of US President Ronald Reagan, or joined protests against the US invasion of Iraq. Most people instinctively sympathise with the struggle of the Palestinians.
Erosion
The modern Irish elite, however, find the policy of neutrality deeply embarrassing. They see themselves as members of the Western imperialist alliance and are therefore forced to play a double game. They pretend to be neutral but cooperate and do the bidding of their imperial master, the US. This is epitomised by the US military’s use of Shannon Airport.
During the second Gulf War, Shannon became a central hub for the US war effort. About one in four US troops who served in Iraq passed through Shannon. They often came from Fort Bragg to the Iraqi war zone.
Later, Shannon was used for torture “renditions”. The CIA often took prisoners from Iraq and subjected them to torture. As this could not be legally conducted in the US, the prisoners were taken to “dark sites” in other parts of the world. Amnesty International brought flight logs to the Irish Government’s attention showing that six planes known to have been used by the CIA for renditions had made approximately 800 flights in or out of European airspace, including 50 landings at Shannon Airport. No investigation was undertaken by the Irish government.
The Irish state developed a practice of turning a blind eye so that the US could do what they wanted. Under the Air Navigation (Foreign Military Aircraft) Act 1952, no troops of a foreign country were allowed to enter Ireland while wearing their uniforms. That is unless the government gave permission, which the Irish government gave subsequently. Aircraft that are carrying weapons are supposed to seek permission first – but the Irish government has refused to carry out spot checks.
Since this glaring breach of Irish neutrality, the Irish elite have stepped up their efforts to undermine it. A small number of Irish troops have been sent to Afghanistan while it was under US occupation. In 2013, Ireland and Britain undertook a joint “training mission” in Mali. In 2017, Fine Gael pushed through Ireland’s membership of PESCO – the Permanent Structured Cooperation pact of the EU. This committed the Irish state to increase military spending – even though the country needed money for a housing crisis. PESCO commits the Irish government to devote 20% of its total defence budget to spending on military equipment. Instead of a focus on manpower for civil projects such as flood relief, the EU will dictate the type of equipment needed for a fifth of the budget.
It also agreed to intensive involvement in a future European Defence Fund. This is about building up an EU arms industry so that huge profits can be made. PESCO also involves a heightened degree of cooperation with NATO. A declaration from the leaders of the EU and NATO stated that they will seek “to synchronize the two organizations’ parallel crisis response activities with the goal of providing coherent support in response to hybrid threats.”
Palestine and Ukraine
The hypocrisy of the Irish government has been clearly exposed in its response to the wars in Palestine and Ukraine. Neutrality does not mean staying silent about oppression and imperialism. It means refusing to participate in imperialist military alliances and taking a distinct anti-colonial position. The Irish government should look at these events through a lens that says ”a plague on all empires”. This, however, is exactly what it does not do.
Israel is a violent rogue state that has launched a campaign of genocide against the people of Gaza. It has murdered tens of thousands of innocent people, imposed a collective punishment on Gaza by cutting off electricity and vital supplies. It has openly declared its intention to ethnically cleanse the area. It has launched a war on Lebanon, bombing its people and invading the country. It has attacked Syria and grabbed more of its territory. It threatens Iran and has murdered key figures in Tehran.
The Irish government, however, speaks out of both sides of its mouth and is not serious about taking any real action against Israel.
The government refused to expel the Israeli ambassador, and since Israel closed its embassy in Dublin of its own accord, it has been concerned to repair relations with that genocidal state. It has allowed planes to enter Irish airspace carrying weapons for Israel. It pretends to investigate how this occurred but is doing nothing to stop the airlines using Irish airspace. Before the general election of 2024, it promised to implement the Occupied Territories Bill. Afterwards, it announced that it would not be doing so. Paschal Donohoe even made a phone call to reassure the Israeli government that Ireland would not pass the bill. Donohoe has also defended the Irish Central Bank assisting the funding of the Israeli genocide by authorising the sale of Israeli war bonds.
There is a name for this. It is complicity.
Contrast this with the response on the issue of Ukraine. This is supposed to be different from Palestine, as its orientation towards the EU has meant it is presented as a defender of European values. So, the Irish government has attended 25 meetings of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group (UDCG), mostly at NATO Headquarters. This is a NATO alliance where members can pledge the donation of military supplies to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. It is also contributing to the EU Military Assistance Mission (EUMAM), which is coordinating the training of Ukrainian recruits by EU militaries. The government agreed to send more than €120 million in “non-lethal military aid” to Ukraine, as part of a €20 billion EU military aid programme. Despite earlier promises that Irish troops would only train Ukrainians in de-mining, it emerged that they were actually providing weapons training.
The double standards here are shocking. Israel has been in illegal occupation of Palestine for decades and has been subject to 154 condemnatory resolutions of the UN General Assembly since 2015. No Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael politician has even suggested that Palestinians have a legitimate right to self-defence against this aggression or that “non-lethal aid” and training be given to Palestinian fighters.
The reason for this hypocrisy is that Ukraine has become the touchstone of European liberalism. Here there is a struggle of national defence against Russian aggression. Yet the Ukrainian leadership has subordinated it to Western imperialism. The US and the EU supplied the money, the weapons, the intelligence and political solidarity, while nearly 100,000 Ukrainians died in the fighting.
If anyone had any doubts about how this is a proxy war between Russia and its Western allies, just listen to Trump’s attack on Zelensky in the notorious White House meeting. The row in the White House resembled that of a master and a vassal. The master had decided that the war must end because they were not winning and had other long-term goals, namely the fight with China. The vassal cried foul but ultimately conceded the handover of valuable minerals.
War Talk
The latest ideological offensive on neutrality uses the argument that Ireland will need to defend European values against the threat of Russian aggression. Russia is indeed an imperialist power, and we should condemn its invasion of Ukraine. But they are not the only aggressor. The US says it wants to take over Greenland and the Panama Canal. It wants to turn Gaza into a Riviera. The only foreign army that has murdered Irish civilians, so far, has been the British army. It was not Russian soldiers who committed the Bloody Sunday murders.
Recognising that we live in a world of imperialist aggression does not compel us to pick a side or pretend that some aggressions are worse than others. Moreover, we should not uncritically accept the liberal mythology that the civilised EU is the best defender of humanitarian values. The EU’s Fortress Europe is responsible for more than 50,000 people dying since 1993. The Mediterranean has been turned into a graveyard of people fleeing the impact of the policies and wars of European and other Western powers.
The major powers in the EU have been colonial powers with the most brutal history of violence against its colonised subjects. To take only one example, the French war in Algeria caused an estimated 1 million deaths. And, for decades, the brutal massacre of Algerian workers who dared to march through Paris on 17 October 1961 was hidden. Today, EU member states continue to militarily support the most oppressive regimes in the world. The second biggest supplier of weapons to Israel today is Germany. In addition, EU member states issued at least 607 licences worth over €15.8 billion to Saudi Arabia, aiding its military atrocities in Yemen, before some countries halted sales.
The EU is currently also engaged in a major re-armament programme. The EU White Paper for European Defence – Readiness 2030 promises up to €800 billion in new spending over five years. Countries will no longer have to adhere to the Stability and Growth Pact, which limited government deficits to 3% of GDP, if they are increasing military spending. The EU believes this increased spending can help stimulate its ailing manufacturing industries and has excluded US firms from benefiting from tendering for contracts. Ultimately, the profits will be paid for by the blood of working people.
This is not just a matter of re-armament. We have entered a new era of war talk. Donald Tusk has declared that we are in a “pre-war era”. Mark Rutte, the head of NATO, says Europe must “switch to a wartime mindset”. A senior UK general, Sir Patrick Sanders, has said that there is now a “pre-war generation” that may have to prepare itself to enter combat. In Germany, defence minister Boris Pistorius caused shock by declaring the nation had to be “ready for war”. Even the Irish Times ran the headline “As the EU prepares for war, Ireland sticks it’s head in the sand”. The Financial Times summed it up with “Europe must trim its its welfare state to build a warfare state”.
The conclusion should be clear. Irish neutrality should be saved so that this country can become a voice for peace in a world gearing itself for war. Its anti-colonial message needs to be translated into opposition to all attempts by imperialist powers to create spheres of influence or rob weaker countries of valuable minerals.
Kieran Allen was central to the founding and development of People Before Profit and is a prolific author, with works including The Politics of James Connolly, The Celtic Tiger, and Tax Haven Ireland.