Ireland’s Neutrality: An Outdated Concept?
“Though the Government's present policy of indifferent neutrality is the policy of the majority of our people, is the policy of the legitimate, elected Government of this country and, as I believe, the policy supported by the majority of the members of the Party to which I belong, I say that it is not a correct course of conduct. I say it is not in the true interest, moral or material, of the Irish people.” – James Dillon TD, Thursday 17th July 1941
On Friday, October 24th 2025, the Republic of Ireland elected the left-wing independent candidate from Shantalla, Co. Galway by a landslide of over sixty percent, the largest majority of any presidential election in the country’s history. It was a resounding success for the opposition parties, sent shockwaves throughout the political establishment, and put the Taoiseach’s position in serious jeopardy as leader of his party. Catherine Connolly, supported by an unprecedented coalition of all the opposition parties and helped by the failure of the sitting government to deal with the burgeoning housing crisis, ran on a platform of being a ‘voice for equality, justice and for the defence of neutrality.’ As shown by Connolly’s win, neutrality remains popular in Ireland and is still supported by nearly sixty percent of the population following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Described as ‘anti-EU’ by Bobby McDonagh, former Irish ambassador to the United Kingdom and the United Nations, she firmly opposes any increase in defence spending and compared the rearmament of Germany to the Nazi regime in the 1930s.
This comes at a time when Ireland, with 0.2% of GDP, has the lowest investment in defence in Europe, with no radar, no fighter jets, no surface-to-air missiles capable of reaching over 10,000 feet and only two operational patrol ships. Our propeller-powered aircraft can only reach 25,000 feet, 10,000 less than most commercial planes, notwithstanding Russian Tupolev TU-95 bombers, which have been spotted conducting reconnaissance operations in Irish airspace. Britain’s Royal Air Force has had to protect Ireland’s skies. Called ‘a caricature of freeriding’, Ireland has relied on its geographical position, lack of external threats, and an official policy of neutrality to avoid any increases in defence spending. The election of Connolly to the country’s highest office shows that Ireland is still unwilling to consider the moral implications of neglecting its defence and alliances, and as the Russian threat continues to grow, Ireland may be forced into a decision whether it likes it or not. The two world wars and the Cold War demonstrate that historically, despite an official position of neutrality (except for WWI, when the country was part of the United Kingdom, but still demonstrated the position described), Ireland has felt a moral obligation to support the West, and with the clouds of war darkening over Europe, it should do so again.
Thomas Kettle from Artane, North County Dublin, described as the ‘finest mind of his generation’, espoused this view after Germany invaded Belgium in 1914. A former journalist, academic, and Member of Parliament, he wrote that after the ‘systematic campaign of murder, pillage, outrage, and destruction’, it was ‘impossible any longer to be passive.’ For Ireland to be neutral in the conflict, he wrote, ‘would have been to abandon all her old valour and decision, and to establish in their places the new cardinal virtues of comfort and cowardice.’ Evidently, he was not alone in these opinions, as, even without conscription, over 159,000 men, or one third of all males between the ages of 15-35, fought in the largest ever mobilisation of Irish military power. Tellingly, when Rodger Casement, one of the leading figures of the Easter Rising in 1916 attempted to form an Irish Brigade for the German army out of Irish prisoners in a German POW base, he was ‘booed out of the camp.’ The Irish soldiers believed in the cause of ‘Europe and civilisation’, and we would do well to remember the words of Kettle, who was killed at Ginchy in 1916, when viewing the horrific Russian massacres in Bucha, ‘do not think that the evil, written here in the debris of Belgium, will be cancelled and blotted out by subscriptions and indemnities.’
Image courtesy of Thomas Kettle’s book ‘Ways of War’ published posthumously by Mary Kettle, ©1917. Some rights reserved.
The onset of the Second World War again sees this pro-West stance. Despite the newly independent state’s official neutrality, adapted out of ‘realpolitik, defencelessness, and the likelihood of republican insurrection’ approximately 66,000 Irish men and women went north to serve in the British forces predominantly out of a willingness as Historian Richard Doherty put it, ‘to help others, the desire to fight against injustice and oppression, the craving for a better world for future generations.’ Michael D’Alton, an officer in the Royal Navy, spoke of the need to stop Hitler as Ireland ‘would have been next for slavery if he’d succeeded’, while Dubliner Eric Dunlop reflected that ‘I felt I had a conscience: if somebody didn’t do something, who was going to do it? This pseudo-neutrality of sorts was also evident in the return of downed British and American pilots back to Northern Ireland contrasted with the detention of German pilots in POW camps, sending fire trucks to Belfast in 1941 and, unprecedented intelligence sharing between Britain’s internal security service, MI5, and Ireland’s military intelligence G2. Of twelve Abwehr (German Intelligence) agents sent to Ireland, all were found and detained by the government. Dan Bryan, the head of G2, later remarked that ‘absolute neutrality is a negative policy.’
The Cold War further demonstrates this pseudo-neutrality. Ireland, predominantly Catholic, largely regarded the encroaching Eastern Block as a ‘manifold evil.’ The socialist workers party at most had seven members elected to parliament, and for An Garda Síochana (the police force), the ‘monitoring of Soviet agents was second in importance only to the monitoring of republican groups.’ All members of the Soviet diplomatic service had to apply to the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin if they wished to travel anywhere outside of a 25 mile radius due to fears of association with the Irish Republican Army in the North while American, British and other NATO officials had no such confinements. Such concerns were well-founded, as the KGB (Soviet Intelligence Service) was discovered to have delivered arms to the official IRA via a fishing trawler off the northern coast of Ireland in 1972. Just over ten years later, two Soviet diplomats, Gennadi Saline, Viktor Lipasov, and his wife, Irona, were expelled from the embassy in Dublin, described as a ‘clearing house for an international spying operation’, for conducting espionage. It is no surprise then that Taoiseach Charles J. Haughey in the early 1980s told German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt that ‘ideologically and politically, Ireland is not neutral’.
In 2003, former Taoiseach Garrett Fitzgerald remarked that Irish foreign policy revolved around the interests of the state rather than ideals or values. These interests focused overwhelmingly on healthcare, housing, and the economy, and were enabled by the conditions highlighted in the introduction. However, Europe is now facing the ‘most dangerous situation’ since the end of the Second World War, and using our voice for peace, as Connolly desires, will not be enough. Russia is intent on undermining Nato and destabilising European democracies, and the incursions into Irish airspace, the cyberattack on the health service, which incurred costs of €70 million, proves we are not immune from this. Furthermore, ‘the northern hemisphere’s most important subsea cables’ run through Irish waters, have been routinely threatened by Moscow. Ireland has a duty to our western allies to protect these cables; two ships are simply not enough. After all, integration into the European Union has been integral to our transformation from a rural, conservative and backward country into a modern and progressive democracy. Alliances, as Irish Times political editor Pat Leahy outlines, ‘are a two-way street’, and we cannot lag behind and do nothing. As former TD and minister for justice Charlie Flanagan put it, ‘what is worth joining is worth defending.’
At this critical juncture, Ireland can ill afford a head of state not only disregarding the Russian threat but criticising the attempts of the European Union, of which she is now an integral part, to respond to this threat. Withdrawing to the moral high ground is not enough and is disrespectful to all our allies. Thomas Kettle spoke of a ‘duty not only to herself [Ireland] but to the world’, and a century later, the same duty calls. As Rear Admiral Chris Parry proclaimed on Wednesday, October the 22nd of this year – “Neutrality cannot be seen as conscientious objection anymore. If you are part of the free world, you have to be prepared to defend it.”
Image courtesy of World Armies via Flickr, ©2011. Some rights reserved.
Image courtesy of Houses of the Oireachtas via Wikimedia, ©2022. Some rights reserved.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the wider St. Andrews Foreign Affairs Review team.
