Tom Clonan: To protect Irish neutrality, we must invest in Defence Forces

I do not believe that there is any advantage for Ireland in joining Nato in order to solve our defence problems, writes Tom Clonan, but we must invest in our basic defences

A recruitment and retention crisis has seen numbers drop to a new low of just 7,764 personnel across army, naval service and air corps. Picture: PA

This week, TG4’s current affairs series Iniuchadh focused on Irish neutrality. The documentary untangled the complex history and contemporary political — and military — meaning of Ireland’s neutral status.

From the outset, it became clear that our neutral status is not a simple binary position, but a complex, evolving and pragmatic foreign policy response to a rapidly changing world.