Irish Neutrality Dead and Gone?

national | miscellaneous | news report Tuesday March 25, 2003 16:20 by Janus

Time to change the arguments

A key argument both of the anti-war protestors and those people who campaigned against Nice was that this or that violated our long standing policy of neutrality. They claimed we were a neutral country and hence this action was illegal, or unjustified etc.

Perhaps it is time for those of us who support neutrality, parties, lobby groups and all to come out and specifically say that we, the people who have been campaigning for Irish neutrality, no longer consider this state to be neutral, that it is no longer a case of defending or protecting Irish neutrality, but actually creating a policy of Irish neutrality.

We should stop referring to protecting or defending something in that circumstance because it does not exist, it has been destroyed. A Shinner put the argument to me over the weekend and I have to say it makes a lot of sense, changes the context of the argument.

When Bertie says he's protecting Irish neutrality we ask him, what neutrality, we're not a neutral state, it's about becoming neutral that the argument must now be fought. Some people might think it is splitting hairs but I think it is an important, and accurate shift in our argument. We're not fighting to defend or protect something, we're fighting to attain something.