Month: April 2023

The Irish government are planning to hold a series of “public forums” on the question of Ireland’s military neutrality later this year. These forums and their expert panels have been given the reins on this issue, rather than a Citizens’ Assembly, because the Irish government has a preconceived answer to that question it wants our political processes to arrive at. I am not saying these public forums will necessarily be “rigged” in some way, per se, just acknowledging what anyone can see, but no one in support of ending Irish neutrality would ever admit: that they were very blatantly chosen in lieu of a Citizens’ Assembly because given the two options on the table, one is more likely to produce a more supportive result for their preferred future vision of Irish foreign policy. I am 100% confident that is the case, for the simple reason that support for maintaining Irish neutrality remains consistently high and support for Ireland joining NATO remains consistently low, so even if a panel is only composed of an equal number of experts for and against neutrality – however expert is defined! – it’s still more likely to produce a result favourable to the government than a group drawn from the citizenry. I don’t think that means these forums aren’t worth engaging with; if anything I encourage everyone in the country to look into the process for making submissions to them whenever that’s announced and do whatever else you can to fight for maintaining our neutrality.