Is Ireland drifting from neutrality amid Europe’s €381bn rearmament drive?

As Europe embarks on historic military expansion, Ireland faces mounting pressure to reconsider neutrality and defence spending priorities

Taoiseach Micheál Martin visiting Camp Shamrock in Lebanon last December. A small country cannot outspend the great powers, but it can decide what kind of politics it wants to import, writes Colin Sheridan. File Picture: Irish Defence Forces

Ireland’s defence debate is always conducted as if Ireland has just been discovered. As if the country has drifted, unnoticed, into a dangerous world, and it must now be briefed, urgently, by those who have been watching the horizon.

The language is increasingly familiar. Neutrality is “outdated”. Ireland is “exposed”. The Defence Forces are “hollowed out”. The State is “falling behind”.