What is peace? What is neutrality? And what do they look like in practice?
At first glance, Ireland is often described as a neutral country. We are told we are at peace. But when we dig deeper, a very different picture emerges. Ireland’s neutrality has been compromised for decades. Shannon Airport has long been used by the U.S. military as a stopover for its wars abroad. A 1959 agreement allows U.S. military planes to fly over Ireland so long as they are “unarmed” and seek permission to transport weapons. A thin veneer of neutrality is maintained—a fig leaf to cover Ireland’s complicity in imperialist wars and genocide.
Artificial Neutrality and the Triple Lock
Some argue that Ireland is neutral because its soldiers are not, in large numbers, on foreign battlefields. This rests on the fragile safeguard of the Triple Lock, which requires approval from the government, the Dáil, and the United Nations before Irish forces can be deployed abroad. It is imperfect, but it remains the final barrier between this state and full military integration with NATO and the EU war machine.
The ruling class in Leinster House has long sought to dismantle even this safeguard. Abolishing the Triple Lock would end the last illusion of neutrality.
Historical Roots
The Irish Free State, founded in 1922, was not the revolutionary republic envisaged in the Proclamation of 1916. It was a compromise—British imperialism striking a deal with reactionary nationalism to secure a state that would protect their interests, thus creating a new Irish bourgeoisie.
From Cosgrave and O’Higgins in the 1920s to today’s Martin and Harris, the Irish ruling class has consistently managed power on behalf of domestic capitalism and global imperialism. Faces change, but the system remains. As Connolly observed: “Governments in capitalist societies are but committees of the rich to manage the affairs of the capitalist class.”
Neutrality is not eroded by referendum—for the people would defend it—but by stealth, through Shannon, through propaganda, and through scaremongering rhetoric about Russia.
False Narratives and Imperialism
Micheál Martin claimed last year that the Triple Lock gives Russia a veto over Irish sovereignty. This is smoke and mirrors. Ireland’s foreign policy already follows Washington, London, and Brussels. Ireland does not act independently. It acts as a client state. Both failed states on this island are subject states: the North to the old colonial order and the South to the neo-colonial order.
We are told the world is more dangerous now, but the real danger comes not from neutrality. It comes from imperialism. As the crisis of capitalism deepens, resources are plundered and markets fought over. When peaceful means fail, war becomes inevitable.
If the ruling class has its way, Irish youth will once again be sent to fight in wars for the rich, just as John Redmond encouraged during the First World War. The begging bowl is out again—this time for crumbs from both EU and Yankee imperialism.
Peace in the North
In the North, there is no neutrality and no true peace. NATO forces parading through Belfast, guarded by the PSNI—the armed wing of the British occupation—is not peace. Occupation dressed up as stability cannot be peace. More people have died by suicide since the Good Friday Agreement than died in the previous 30 years of armed struggle. What peace can those statistics represent?
Neutrality must therefore be spoken of as anti-imperialist, because the national question remains. National liberation is central to peace and neutrality.
Peace and Social Justice
Peace is not only about foreign policy. Peace is about justice at home. What peace exists for the family waiting a decade on a housing list, while vulture funds buy up estates? What peace exists for the patient lying on a hospital trolley for 48 hours?
True peace cannot exist in a society where people are forced into poverty, where housing is denied, and healthcare rationed. Neutrality is not only about refusing NATO. It is about refusing to allow capitalism to wage war on the working class.
The billions wasted on military “partnerships” could eradicate homelessness, staff our hospitals, and provide opportunity for our youth. Neutrality should mean neutrality from imperialist wars abroad and from capitalist exploitation at home.
The Struggle Ahead
Peace is not the absence of war alone. It is the presence of justice: homes, healthcare, dignity in work, and freedom from imperialist domination. Neutrality is not a technical clause in international law. It is the refusal to allow our people’s will to be broken by multinationals and landlords.
That is why the Triple Lock must remain. Not because it is perfect, but because it is the last defence against dismantling neutrality entirely.
Connolly warned that without a Socialist Republic, Ireland would be “a carnival of reaction.” Is that not what we see today? A manufactured housing crisis, collapsing health services, neutrality dismantled, racism, sectarianism, and partition still imposed.
The fight for peace and neutrality is the fight against capitalism, against imperialism, and against those who would sell our children’s future for profit.
Let us build an Ireland truly at peace—with its people and with the world. To do this, we must get organised. The ruling class is organised and committed. But they have weaknesses we can and must exploit.
Let us engage with our communities, appeal to the youth, and build solidarity—not the solidarity of victimhood, but the revolutionary solidarity required to take power in Ireland and retain our gains. That is the solidarity of resistance.
