Following the defeat of the 2001 Nice Treaty referendum, a meeting of EU heads of government in Seville agreed Ireland’s declaration of neutrality and accepted a national declaration spelling out the triple lock. This is the name given to Irish legislation in the Seville Declaration of the Nice Treaty stating members of the Irish Defence Forces shall not serve abroad without the agreement of the Dáil, the Government, and the UN Security Council or the UN General Assembly.
This commitment was a key argument in favour of accepting the Nice Treaty in the second referendum 2002. After the Lisbon Treaty was rejected in 2008, our government again made a national declaration affirming the triple lock, to encourage the Irish people to vote yes in the second referendum.
In 2020, both the Fianna Fáil manifesto and the Programme for Government committed to protecting neutrality and the triple lock requirement for a UN mandate.
Minister Micheál Martin must reflect on this historic commitment as a neutral state to the UN rather than military alliances such as Nato. The role of a neutral state such as Ireland is to be a voice of diplomacy, human rights, humanitarian support, and peace in opposition to imperialism, colonialism, and oppression.
In contrast to many Western countries, our Defence Forces do not have a history of invading and occupying other countries. This has given them a great deal of credibility in the Global South, when serving in UN missions. If Irish troops begin taking part in missions not authorised by the UN, this credibility will be seriously tarnished.
In recent years, there has been increased tension among the major powers which has spilled over into the work of the UN security council. The UN may appear ineffectual at times, but it remains the most important international organisation with responsibility for peace, security, and climate change. If Ireland is really committed to the UN Charter and international law, then it cannot be part of any decision that goes outside this framework.
Roger Cole
Peace & Neutrality Alliance
Dalkey, Dublin
Realism not racism around migration
When Syria imploded, the Germans took in many refugees. Angela Merkel famously pronounced: “wir schaffen das [we can do this].”
When Ukraine imploded, our Government stepped up to the mark. Ireland distinguished itself on the international stage in the process. It is crucially important for all sorts of reasons why a small prosperous open economy with a low corporation tax rate that does not pay for its own defence demonstrates its willingness to be a good world citizen.
Nobody is saying this is not difficult, disruptive and inconvenient. Nobody is saying Ireland can receive and accommodate limitless numbers of refugees — and nobody is asking us to.
I worked within the Refugee Appeals System for a period of time. We do receive applicants who destroy documents and arrive from other EU states. Many are also in truth economic migrants. This is a matter to raise with our EU partners and it is important to understand that our government is acting in accordance with a framework of international treaties and long-established EU law.
Small rural communities (and a few deprived urban communities) are receiving disproportionate numbers of refugees. Rural political representatives have every right to point to this fact without being accused of racism or parochial chauvinism. But we need to eradicate a few tropes from the discussion. “Unvetted single males”, must surely be one of them. The phrase reeks of the Deep South in the US in the 1950s.
As far as I can see, immigrants are enriching our society and economy. As Brendan Kennelly once said of the good: “I think I know one or two amongst my friends”.
Michael Deasy
Bandon, Co Cork
Garda bias impairs face recognition
Reading Fergus Finlay’s belief ( Irish Examiner, December 5) that “A defeat for Helen McEntee would be a victory for hatred and intolerance’’, it is clear some commentators' concerns about the far right are blinding them to the dangers to social cohesion that the minister for justice’s facial recognition policy will contain.
Minister McEntee intends to introduce facial recognition technology that has a reputation for being unable to distinguish faces not white and male. This is technology that failed to correctly identify the correct suspect in 80% of cases when trialled by the London Metropolitan Police. Gardaí will be potentially wasting most of their time on a wild goose chase against racial minorities and women.
Gardaí will be allowed to use the technology on images they would normally check manually. Despite, government promises of ethical use of facial recognition technology, it is not advisable to be fobbed off by the idea that it will be a trained garda using the technology. This is a force whose own internal research in 2020 revealed prejudices towards ethnic minorities, with only 30% of gardaí viewing black Africans positively. What is to stop a Garda pursuing an innocent person because his/her ethnic or racial biases support the choice?
With the previous facts in mind, how can Irish society respect women and minorities yet use divisive and flawed technology?
Shane Burke
Monasterevin, Co Kildare
Christ was yet another refugee
I recently attended the lighting of the Memorial Christmas Tree in our beautiful village of Dromahair. Also lit up was the traditional crib, commemorating the nativity of a baby born in a stable 2,000 years ago because there was no room at the inn for his refugee parents. Along with his disciples, 12 single men, this child would grow up to establish one of the most widespread religions in history, Christianity, brought to Ireland, and Dromahair, almost 1,600 years ago by another single man, Patrick, who is honoured each year with a parade in the village.
In this season of ‘goodwill to all men’, as we return to our warm homes after the festivities, we might ask ourselves what exactly that means, and then open our arms and hearts to those desperately in need of shelter and refuge.
Bernie Linnane
Dromahair,
Co Leitrim
Powerless in face of much global woe
A sense of powerlessness seems to be a draining characteristic in much of today’s world. Many of us struggle in the face of climate change, cowed by our impotence. Resolving the housing crisis is,
in the context of human history, small cheese but we struggle to resolve it no matter how well-intentioned.
The daily and calculated atrocities in Gaza diminish us all and defy near-universal efforts to end Israeli and Hamas savagery. America’s role as a facilitator is increasingly shameful and demands a response from those who celebrate the declarations around democracy and freedom routine in America but abhor that superpower’s support of Israel’s actions.
Is it time to start a conversation around the exclusion of Israel from next year’s Paris Olympics? And if Israel is to be admonished in that way, why not America?
Even discussing that idea will unfortunately exacerbate a sense of powerlessness.
Jack Power
Inniscarra,
Co Cork
Use Irish soft power to halt Gaza war
Words cannot describe the absolute inhuman bloodbath taking place in our time by an out-of-control and merciless far-right Israeli state on helpless Palestinians and the UN in Gaza and the occupied territories.
For all of us who care about peace and protecting the people of the Holy Lands — Jews, Muslins, Christian and others — we can clearly see that after decades of brutal expansion and colonialisation by Israel with the complicit collaboration of the US, England and other EU states while the free world does nothing.
To the traumatised, starving, maimed and grieving Palestinians the Irish people see and hear you, we are not fooled by the double standards of our leaders and the Western elites and media on who has a right to defend themselves or their weasel words for humanitarian pauses while keeping diplomatic relationships with a genocidal Israeli state that can ignore international law and continue to bomb out of existence thousands of our fellow human beings.
In Ireland, our political leaders with full bellies, well-watered and well-rested are great at playing to the public outcry on the suffering of the Palestinian people with righteous rhetoric while doing nothing to demonstrate real commitment to end it.
England’s immoral political/military support for this brutal Israeli regime gives new momentum to reunite Ireland so our nation can be finally free to promote our own sovereignty of justice, liberty, and reconciliation across our divided world.
Our Government as a friend of America should continue to challenge President Biden to stop supplying money and munitions to Israeli and use our soft power through the Irish diaspora across the world (80m) to persuade other nations to uphold international law and to free Palestine from this illegal and murderous occupation.
We must urgently replace the veto powers at the Security Council with a super-majority vote at the General Assembly so we can properly and timely enforce order in the world based on justice for all.
Michael Hagan
Dunmurry,
Co Antrim
