Mick Clifford: Does neutrality still protect Ireland? Why it’s time for an honest conversation

As global threats rise, Ireland’s neutrality faces scrutiny. Is it a principled stance or outdated idealism? The debate intensifies

A Ukrainian soldier looks at the sky searching for Russian FPV drones as he gets ready to fire a M777 howitzer towards Russian positions at the frontline near Donetsk, Ukraine. Picture: AP

There is an obnoxious element to some of the debate on this country’s future at a time of living dangerously. In the discussion about what form neutrality should take and — on the fringes so far — whether it should be retained at all, there is a tendency to dehumanise opponents. This emanates from some of those who wish to retain the status quo. Anybody who disagrees with them places a lesser value on human life, they infer, and are willing if not eager to send somebody else’s children off to be killed in foreign wars.

Those who purvey this stuff are primarily focused with signalling their virtue. They want you to know that they cherish human life more than people who believe the country at large should, for the greater good, be organised in a different way. Others appear to be caught up in emotion and frankly should know better.