Hardly a week passes without a new attack upon the neutrality of this state—a policy supported by the majority of the people of Ireland. It is not just an attack upon neutrality, but against the Irish people themselves.
At the end of October 2025, a former senior NATO commander, Rear Admiral Chris Parry, launched a sustained attack on Irish neutrality when addressing a meeting in the British House of Lords for the “Together UK Foundation.” He spoke of the threat posed by Russia and China and how a united Ireland outside of NATO and Western security arrangements would be unacceptable and threaten the security of Britain.
He argued that a united Ireland would pose a strategic threat to Britain as well as NATO’s western flank. His claim was that if a united Ireland were to happen, Britain would lose the protection afforded by its continued control over the North, which would only deepen the threat to imperialism’s strategic interests.
The Rear Admiral predicted that Irish economic zone waters would soon be overrun with Chinese and Russian submarines. Sure, there would be no room out in the Atlantic for Irish trawlers with so many Russian and Chinese submarines lurking beneath the waves!
He went on to say that NATO should counter the threat from Moscow and Beijing by holding naval exercises in Irish waters, regardless of whether the Irish government agrees or not. So, our NATO general believes that whatever the Irish government does or does not do, the interests of NATO are primary and count above everything else—including the views of the Irish people.
His arrogance and his racism are breathtaking in their scale. In his presentation, he stated: “I would say to the good people of Ireland: you’ve been independent for more than 100 years. Stop blaming the Brits. We have shared interests here.”
“If anyone attacks Britain, they will attack Ireland. It is as simple as that. Neutrality cannot be seen as conscientious objection anymore. If you are part of the free world, you have to be prepared to defend it. The Republic needs to reduce its vulnerabilities.”
“Would I want Ireland on our side in a war with Russia? Yes. There is an immense amount of talent in the Republic that is not being exploited. They fight really well.” In a follow-up interview on RTÉ Radio, he said that the Irish had played an important role in building the British Empire and had benefited from that relationship. He wants the Irish people to “forget” their history.
This fits in well with the strategy of the Irish establishment for a number of decades, notably when they removed the teaching of history as a core subject in Irish secondary-level education. If you do not know your history, you will fall for anything presented by the establishment and people like this British/NATO Rear Admiral.
Over the last decade or more, Irish governments, think tanks, and lobbyists have been pushing a similar position to that of the Admiral: that we cannot protect ourselves, that we need to protect the undersea cables, etc. As these cables are thousands of miles long, where does our duty to protect them end?
He went on to state that the Irish state was “strategically irrelevant as long as the UK maintains retains control of the Six Counties.” The British state has been claiming for decades that it had no strategic, political, or economic interests in holding on to the Six Counties—that they were honest brokers, not partisan participants. His comments expose the real intent and interests behind the British continued occupation of the Six Counties. His comment no doubt reflects the thinking and interests of the upper echelons of the British and NATO establishments.
It exposes their real position regarding Britain being a “neutral” force in the Six Counties—just there to keep the two warring tribes apart. It also exposes the position that Britain is some sort of honest broker regarding the holding of a border poll, with no vested interest in its outcome.
For those who still linger under the illusion that Britain, the EU, and NATO operate as some sort of benign force, they should listen carefully to what the Rear Admiral had to say. The British, EU, USA, and its armed wing, NATO, are contemptuous of what the Irish people want. We should simply do as we are told. We should once again become mere cannon fodder for imperialism. That the daughters and sons of the Irish working class should die on foreign battlefields for imperialism.
The Irish government is deeply involved in collaboration with these same forces through its strategy for us to abandon neutrality and the Triple Lock.
The defence of neutrality and the Triple Lock grows in importance with each attack upon it by both the Irish establishment and their imperial masters.
