Should Ireland debate joining Nato and abandoning ‘neutrality’?

Security Correspondent Cormac O’Keeffe approached a number of experts and politicians seeking answers to three pertinent questions

Oleksiy Polyakov, right, and Roman Voitko check the remains of a destroyed Russian helicopter lie in a field in the village of Malaya Rohan, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, last week. Picture: AP Photo/Bernat Armangue

The decision by Finland and Sweden to end their long history of neutrality, or military non-alignment, and apply for Nato membership — and the speed at which that decision has been made — marks a seismic development in European security and foreign affairs.

Historical and geographic factors have driven that development, as well as alarm caused by the devastation Russia has wrought on Ukraine and its people and the threats Vladimir Putin has made to both Nordic countries.