Irish Neutrality

As a child growing up in the early 1960's in Ireland, I can remember hearing reports of our Foreign Minister, Frank Aitken working tirelessly at the UN, in pioneered treaties to stop the nuclear arms race. Being from a small non-aggressive nation, with no history of colonialism, our Foreign Minister was able to challenge the great nations of the world to address this growing security problem in our world at the time. There was also an excitement and a pride throughout the land in Ireland, as our soldiers began to take part in UN peace missions throughout the world. People of my generation will remember the word "Baluba", which in fact became a part of our daily language for many years. (When one wanted to denegrate someone, he or she was often described as a "stupid Baluba"). Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of the Congo and Conor Cruise O'Brien, the head of the UN mission in the Congo, were names on the lips of most Irish people of the time. "Baluba" was a reference to a tribe in the Democratic Republic of Congo who ambushed our Irish UN soldiers at a place called Katanga. Nearly 40 years later when working in Africa, I was aware of unusual feelings within, when I discovered that one of my working colleagues and friends was himself a Baluba. Read about ambush Six Irish soldiers were killed. The whole country came to a halt for the funeral of these six young Irish men, who paid the ultimate price for peace and evoked so much pride in ourselves as a nation, as they were laid to rest in Glasnevin cemetery.

Even before the arrival of our Celtic Tiger, our own English colonial history and decades of UN service by the Irish defense forces along with the presence of over 5,000 Irish Catholic and Protestant missionaries scattered in over 100 countries throughout the world, spoke of Ireland as a nation of peacemakers, in places where no one knew where Ireland was or anything about us. In more recent times, I have little doubt in my own mind that it was the fact that Ireland the peace maker, had the European Presidency in 1990, that our Prime Minister succeeded in securing the release of many of the hostages (including Irish man Brian Keenan) caught up in the Lebanon hostage stalemate that had gone on for years.

This is our heritage, of which we can still continue to be proud as a nation. However in recent years there seems to be a move afoot to draw back from this proud tradition. The upcoming proposed revised EU Constitutional Treaty referendum deserves our careful consideration as a nation in the coming months, in the light of our proud tradition. Through a lack of a proper explanation and dialogue on the consequences of this new Treaty, our Government may be leading us into becoming part of a European super state, supported by a full European army.

In recent years, the Government has decided to have 200 Irish soldiers join the EU Battle Groups, who already have had their first training exercises earlier this year. Battle Groups mark the creation of several rapidly deployable units for international intervention and tasks reaching up to full-combat situations. Interestingly, the European Union Battlegroups are intended to be deployable more rapidly and for shorter periods than the long-planned European Rapid Reaction Force. While these battle groups are envisaged to be ready to offer assistance in situations like the genocide in Rwanda, (what about Darfur today?) we have to be wary of this as a possible 1st step to becoming part of a full European army. If Ireland is integrated into an militarized European superstate allied to the US, this will ensure the full and active participation of all of Ireland in the resource wars of the 21st century. Gone will be our Irish neutrality.

The way forward for Ireland to protect it's neutrality, is to seek a protocol for Ireland to this revised European Constitution. There is a precedent in that a protocol was adopted to the European Maastricht Treaty, which excluded Denmark from the military structure of the EU. We need a similar protocol for Ireland if we are to retain our pride and our image as a nation that values peace above all else.

The decision by the Irish Government to allow the US military to use Shannon airport as a stop off point on their way to and from Iraq, is most worrying in the context of us loosing our recognition as a peace loving people. In the complex world of international relations, no Muslim radicals are going to take our traditional neutrality into account if they decide to act against this aspect of the US military involvement in Iraq. I believe that the action or inaction of our Government over the Shannon stop over, is putting Ireland directly in the firing line. Perhaps it is even more worrying that depite polls conducted by the reputable Landsdowne market research company, the government refuses to address the US military presence in Shannon issue. (58% polled against Shannon being used by the US Military and 76% voted that planes linked to rendition should be checked)

Growing up with that sense of Peace and Neutrality being values at the heart of Irishness, I was shocked and taken aback some months ago, to read in the business section of the Irish Times, of the profits being made by Adtec Teoranta/Timoney Holdings, a Navan based company who design and export military vehicles. Because of this, I did some extra study and discovered that there are at least 14 different Irish companies directly involved in this industry of death. (List of Companies & their wares) We all know that being involved in the military industrial world is indeed a profitable business. But it is truly worrying that our Government is willing to grant export licenses to Irish and foreign companies, whose products are designed to bring death to our fellow human beings. In 2001, a damning Amnesty International report highlighted the lack of effective monitoring by the Irish government in the whole area of the production and export of military goods. Surely the time has come for Ireland to legislate on arms brokering.

How long more can we justify the claim to the world, that Neutrality and a love of Peace are values at the heart of our identity as Irish?