The Dublin government’s decision to abolish the Triple Lock marks a significant departure from the 26-county state’s traditional policy of military neutrality. Here we see the “extreme centre” at work – imposing technocratic and neoliberal political outcomes over and against popular sentiment while presenting them as the only responsible course of action.
Neither Fianna Fáil nor Fine Gael included abolition of the Triple Lock in their election manifestos, nor was it part of their Programme for Government. The government has therefore unilaterally altered Irish foreign policy in a way that affects the collective security of the whole country without any electoral mandate, relying instead on its parliamentary numbers to force the measure through, despite its manifest unpopularity.
If the government believes that abandoning this safeguard is necessary and enjoys public support, why were the electorate not even given a limited opportunity to support or oppose it? The answer, one suspects, is to be found in the initial outcomes of the Nice and Lisbon Treaty referendums, where the Irish people went off-script and failed to deliver the result that the EU integrationist technocratic consensus demanded.
Manufacturing Consent for Militarisation
Since 2023, the government has been laying the groundwork for this reversal. The Consultative Forum on International Security Policy was presented as an opportunity to discuss defence in a rapidly changing global environment, while the speaker list was a who’s who of pro-NATO ideologues and armaments industry lobbyists. Meanwhile, media briefings and establishment commentary have repeatedly invoked Russian aggression, threats to undersea infrastructure and so-called shadow fleets to argue for a transformation of our already-tenuous neutrality to one of full-throated integration with NATO. The lurid press parade never outright states the obviously ludicrous proposition that Ireland stands to be invaded by Russia, but relies on various shades of innuendo or appeals to “European solidarity” and a civic-minded spirit of “pulling our weight”.
Protecting infrastructure and addressing genuine security risks are legitimate concerns. But these do not automatically justify removing safeguards governing overseas military deployments. The public deserves a political climate in which “defence” is not synonymous with “integrating into the EU-NATO military alliance”.
The familiar pattern is clear: cultivate a sense of permanent emergency, portray established safeguards as obstacles, and then present militarisation as inevitable. The central question is whose strategic interests this transformation serves, and whether the Irish people have any say over the decisions that the state makes on their behalf.
Martin’s Reversal
Micheál Martin’s own words reflect the scale of the political reversal. In a 2013 debate, he defended the Triple Lock against Fine Gael’s criticism, declaring:
“The current policy works and it has complete popular legitimacy. There is no reason whatsoever to change” and “Such a change will impress no one in Europe and it will contribute nothing to international peace.”
The Micheál Martin of that time argued that Ireland’s neutrality had earned international respect through its peacekeeping record and should be strengthened rather than undermined.
What has changed so fundamentally? The escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War in 2023 cannot excuse abandoning a longstanding safeguard without an explicit mandate. The government owes the public a clear explanation of why a policy once defended as central to Ireland’s international standing is now considered obsolete – without euphemism or innuendo, and without referring the question back to bodies already stuffed with NATO lackeys.
The European Union, Neutrality and Sovereignty
For Ireland, foreign policy consists of navigating the contradictory material interests of the major capitalist powers, as a very unequal partner. The foreign policy priorities of the United States, the European Union and Britain are not automatically Ireland’s priorities, nor are the interests of the Irish political and economic elites those of Ireland’s working people. Any political manoeuvres that bring the Irish state into greater foreign policy alignment with these powers have implications that concern our whole people, and we need to be wary of such developments.
Ireland is a relatively junior associate in the complex of capitalist states that comprises the European Union. The EU is not a neutral institution standing above the interests of capital; in fact, it exists to shore up the interests of the capitalist class. Its defence structures are growing, partly as a response to the declining role of the United States as a hegemon. The European arms industry stands to benefit from its states’ expanding military procurement, while public resources are channelled into it, all the while generating enormous private profits. Ireland must ask whose interests determine these purchases, what security needs they actually meet, and which of Ireland’s social priorities are being overlooked in the process.
Irish security will not be guaranteed by cosying up to imperialism. It depends on democratic accountability, international cooperation and an independent foreign policy committed to peace.
The defence of neutrality is inseparable from the defence of Irish sovereignty. The Irish people must determine our own place in the world, free from pressure to align with imperialist power blocs. We must combine the struggle for neutrality with the struggles already taking place for housing, for workers’ rights and for genuine international solidarity.
