A peace event will be held at Galway’s Spanish Arch on June 22 at 8pm.
A number of headline speakers will include MEPs Clare Daly and Mick Wallace, two local TDs, Catherine Connolly and Mairéad Farrell, and Dr Karen Devine, an expert on Ireland’s foreign policy.
Under the title “Neutrality Not NATO”, the outdoor public meeting is taking place on the eve of the Government’s Consultative Forum on International Security at University of Galway. The forum will also hold meetings in Dublin and Cork.
According to Galway Alliance, Tánaiste Micheál Martin announced the forum in April instead of an anticipated Citizens’ Assembly on Irish neutrality, and Minister Martin’s critics have described the “Consultative Forum” not only as a “sham”, but an attempt by the Government to jettison neutrality by dropping the “Triple Lock”, which ensures Irish troops can only be sent on overseas missions with the approval of the Government, the Dáil and the United Nations.
It was introduced after the Nice Treaty was rejected in a referendum in 2001 to allay the Irish electorate’s fears that ‘Nice’ was a threat to Ireland's neutrality. Subsequently the Nice Treaty was passed in a second referendum in October 2002. However, as this mechanism is not written into the constitution it can simply be removed by the Government without a referendum.
Peace groups fear such a move will open the way for the Irish armed forces to participate in EU Battle Group and NATO military missions.
According to James Duggan of Galway Alliance Against War, the setting up of the consultative forum instead of a citizens’ assembly is cause for concern.
“It is obvious the Government, which is no friend of Irish neutrality, feared the democratic input a citizens’ assembly on Irish neutrality would provide. Opinion polls have consistently shown overwhelming support of the Irish people for strengthening our neutrality. By creating this forum, which will be chaired by Dame Louise Richardson, who publicly supports US/NATO foreign policy, the government will get the outcome it seeks, the abolition of the Triple Lock and with it Irish neutrality. At the end of the day, it will be Dame Richardson, not the Irish people, who will decide what is best for Ireland.”
