Forum on security policy criticised as ‘fool’s mission’ by neutrality campaigners

The Government’s upcoming forum on international security and defence policy has been criticised as a “fool’s mission” by neutrality campaigners at an event in Dublin.

The consultative forum on security policy is taking place across four days in conferences in Dublin, Cork and Galway over the next fortnight.

Speaking on Monday evening, People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd-Barrett claimed the forum was a “total stitch up” to whip up fear and move the Republic closer to Nato, the US-led military alliance.

Mr Boyd-Barrett said he “wouldn’t trust Micheál Martin as far as I could throw him with Irish neutrality”.

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The event, held in Liberty Hall in Dublin city centre, was organised by the Irish Neutrality League, an umbrella group of several anti-war organisations.

Carol Fox, campaigner with the Peace and Neutrality Alliance (Pana), said the world did “not need” another member of Nato.

The Government forum on security and defence would be a “fool’s mission” if its aim was to push the Republic towards further militarisation, she said.

“The world does not need another member of Nato ... What it needs is a country pushing for peace and demilitarisation,” she said.

The war in Ukraine was labelled a “proxy war between the United States and Russia” by another speaker, Maurice Coakley.

“Ireland is a small country, we’re never going to have a whole lot of clout in the world. We can be a voice for peace and a voice for sanity,” he said.

Addressing the talk remotely, former MP for Mid Ulster Bernadette McAliskey said the Irish people “have spoken in poll after poll” and the vast majority supported remaining neutral.

Independent Senator Frances Black said Irish neutrality was “under attack” amid a “drift towards militarism” by the Government.

The upcoming forum appeared to be a “stage-managed process” to “manufacture consent” for policy changes that did not enjoy public support, she said.

Earlier on Monday Minister of State for Trade Neale Richmond dismissed claims that the forum would be biased or was designed to have a predetermined outcome.

Dr Karen Devine, lecturer in international relations in Dublin City University, said the European Union had already become “a military alliance”, which she said “means our military neutrality is over”.

Dr Devine, who previously spoke at an Irexit conference in Dublin several years ago, said she was not advocating Ireland leaving the EU.

“The solution is very simple, you put a protocol in the EU Treaty that says Ireland is opting out of security and defence [co-operation],” she told the event at Liberty Hall.

Several speakers commended recent comments by President Michael D Higgins, where he said Ireland was undergoing a dangerous “drift” in terms of foreign policy.

Mr Higgins has since apologised for any offence caused by a “throwaway remark” made during the interview about the chair of the consultative forum, Prof Louise Richardson, being a dame of the British Empire.