There was a successful gathering of the Irish Neutrality League last Saturday with about 100 people attending. Lively workshops were hosted by Extinction Rebellion, Afri, the Cork Neutrality League and Senator Mary Alice Higgins.
Karen Devine an academic from DCU who has written extensively on neutrality pointed to a network in Irish society that stretchers from Fine Gael through the Irish Times to some of the universities which are determined to drag this country into NATO. The strategy of this element is to reduce neutrality to non-participation in military alliances and then to erode even that. In reality, neutrality stems from an anti-0colonial tradition and should be used positively as a voice against the machinations of the imperial powers.
As if to confirm this analysis, the junior Minister for European Affairs, Thomas Byrne stated on Friday that ‘Public opinion is not in favour of Ireland joining military alliances. But also I think the public is seeing now that defence is different to offence.’ He was referring to the Ukraine war and was using this to claim that Ireland will need to rethink its stance.
The gathering voted to establish a working group and about 20 people volunteered
