Ireland's Neutrality - The Myth And The Reality
Just a few days ago, one of Britain's most senior British military commanders, Brigadier Piers Ashfield, spoke at an event at Aldergrove airforce base in Co. Antrim. Unsurprisingly his comments were not widely reported in the Irish media.
Anyone who has ever flown into or out of the civilian airport at that location may have noticed that military aircraft are often based there.
Just two months ago in March, both the Dublin and British governments signed a joint "memorandum of understanding" which will see Britain take military control of Irish airspace completely around, and beyond, our island.
Very little publicity has been generated by that agreement. Indeed, it appears that the Dublin government does not want its own citizens to be aware of the details of this latest erosion of Irish neutrality.
Certainly, it is unlikely that politicians in Leinster House would like Irish citizens to be fully aware of the implications of this latest agreement, which is probably the main reason why the full text of that document has not been made public. That is also why there have been no debates on this issue in Leinster House.
However, comments by British Brigadier Ashfield at a press conference recently held at Aldergrove have shed more light on the matter.
Ashfield stated: "Ireland has always been a prisoner of that geography, and where it operates in the Greenland-Iceland gap . . . It occupies an absolutely critical position covering this really important stretch of water in the North Atlantic. It’s the most westerly (base), and I think that provides an advantage not only for the UK operating from here, but also our allies and partners across both NATO and through some of our bilateral arrangements as well.”
The only country to have ever threatened, invaded and occupied Ireland has been our nearest neighbour - Britain. The only country that has used and abused Irish airspace and Irish airports as a stop-over for military personnel and equipment en-route to various war-zones has been the United States.
It is now evident that the Dublin government is now formalising relationships with both states motivated by the longer-term view of completely eroding and permanently dismantling the last vestiges of Irish neutrality.
Irish citizens are not to be informed of the contents of this latest secret sell-out. There will be no referendum, no opportunities for an Irish electorate to say "yea" or "nay". This unpublished agreement between the Dublin government and Britain is surely the final nail in the coffin of Irish neutrality.