Richard Boyd Barrett: Defend Ireland's Neutrality Now

Thanks to Deputy Brian Stanley for bringing forward this important motion about protecting our neutrality. And as Deputy Stanley's motion alludes to, the origin of Irish neutrality lies with Wulff Tone, with one of Ireland's greatest revolutionaries, and he developed the concept of Irish neutrality in 1790 in the context of a debate in the Irish Parliament about whether Ireland should essentially back Britain, was obliged to back Britain in an impending war with Spain. And Tone argued that it was essentially a betrayal of our struggle for autonomy and against empire to be in any way a staging ground for empires in wars. That's where it came from. That radical anti-imperialist notion of neutrality was then taken forward by James Connolly, by Porrick Pearse, and by Constance Markievicz when they set up the Irish Neutrality League in 1914 when the First World War broke out. Another war between empires where people tried to argue we were obliged to support the British Empire in an inter-imperialist slaughter that claimed the lives of 14 million people and tens and tens of thousands of working-class Irish people, economically constricted, went out and got slaughtered in that war. So this is a very, very proud anti-imperialist tradition that is integrally tied up with what we are as a country in opposing empires. Now, do I trust the Irish government with our neutrality? No, because they've already shredded it in doing exactly what Connolly didn't want us to do, what Markievicz and Pearse didn't want us to do, and what Tone didn't want us to do is become a staging ground for empires engaged in wars. Notably, Shannon Airport. Millions of US troops threw Shannon while they prosecuted a criminal war in Iraq that claimed the lives of a million people. A war for oil led by the US and the UK that destabilised the whole Middle East. You know, there would be no Al-Qaeda, there would be none of these, half of these groups, if it wasn't for that disastrous criminal war based on lies about weapons of mass destruction. But we allowed millions of US troops to go through Shannon Airport because the Irish government and political establishment want to align themselves with the American empire. And it is also the American empire today, Donald Trump, telling Europe you have to spend more on weapons. He's goading. Now, should we listen to the goading of Donald Trump who says Europe has to militarise, they have to play their part in NATO and spend more on weapons rather than health, housing and education? I say no. Defending our neutrality means not listening to the goading of him and involving ourselves in a project of militarisation in Europe which is alarmingly reminiscent of the build-up to previous world wars where you have geopolitical jockeying and the militarisation of big powers across the globe as they try and carve out spheres of influence. We should not be involved in that. And what the triple lock is about is precisely about ensuring we do not get involved in wars where empires are clashing. We don't take sides with empires. We oppose empire. And do I trust in our government again when you look at current events? I want to speak up for the 14 Irish people who are upholding our tradition of neutrality on the global Samud flotilla who have been detained by Israel, kidnapped by Israel in international waters. Europe does nothing about it. It's a rogue state, guilty of genocide, guilty of apartheid, guilty of flouting every bit of international law and now detaining Irish people, kidnapping Irish people and imprisoning them because they're trying to uphold international law. What does the Irish government do with the state, the Israeli state that's doing all this? We've increased our trade with them. We approved 20 million in licences to export dual use goods to the Israeli military who are carrying out the genocide and who have kidnapped Irish citizens. So no, I don't trust this. I think the agenda is to get involved in the European militarisation project, to align yourself with the Western empire who arm Israel, who are up to their teeth in warmongering and the disasters of the Iraq and Afghanistan war. We shouldn't trust you. We should hold on to the triple lock and retain that tradition of neutrality that goes back to our revolutionary anti-imperialist roots.