KEEP IRELAND NEUTRAL

Ireland has a long and proud history as a neutral peace-broker. The vast majority of people all over Ireland are extremely proud of this history and of Irish neutrality; but recently, the government has been trying to scrap our neutrality and get us involved in military alliances such as NATO or an EU army.

KEEP THE TRIPLE LOCK

Our neutrality depends on something called The Triple Lock. This means that in order to send more than 12 troops abroad, you must get permission from the government, the parliament/Dáil (government and opposition) and the UN (Security Council or General Assembly).

The Triple Lock works extremely well by allowing us to take part in peacekeeping missions but keeping us out of unsanctioned wars like the illegal invasion of Iraq.

People all across Ireland are coming together to say no to war and militarism and demand that we keep the Triple Lock and keep our proud and longstanding neutrality

The arms-dealers of the world see Ireland as an untapped market for their profits. They need wars in order to make money.

But we understand that our neutrality and the Triple Lock keeps us safe.

All wars must end through diplomacy and this is where Ireland can play a major role on the world stage and help bring wars to an end.
The world needs neutral peace-brokers now, more than ever and Ireland is in a very special position to help bring wars to an end.

Contact us: info@keepirelandneutral.ie

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Events

Shannonwatch Peace Vigil.

Held on the second Sunday of each calendar month. 2-3pm at the ‘Peace Roundabout’ on the approach road leading into Shannon airport. ALL WELCOME.

Sign on display at the Shannonwatch Vigil.

The Triple Lock requires approval from the Dáil, the Government, and the United Nations before Irish troops can be deployed abroad. It safeguards Ireland’s neutrality and ensures democratic oversight of military actions.

News & Views

As Donald Trump plans to visit Ireland: Kites at Doonbeg

Letter on Irish Defence Attachés.

by Marian Naughton. Published in the Irish Examiner

‘Dear Sir,

I was confused and saddened to hear that Ireland is to send ‘Defence Attachés’ to our embassies in France, UK and USA. This is further erosion of our neutrality, and further disregard for the will of the Irish people. It is out-of-step with Article 29 of our Constitution and will incur additional unwarranted expense, at a time when so many of our people are experiencing hardship.

According to a press release on gov.ie on the 4^th of August, the role of these Attachés will be to ‘build relationships with partner armed forces’. The press release also states that the appointment of the three Defence Attachés will support something called ‘defence diplomacy’ and will help ‘deepen defence co-operation with three of Ireland’s closest strategic partners’. As a neutral, nonaligned country, do we have ‘partner armed forces’ and ‘strategic partners’?

As Éamon Ó Cuív said, at an event in Dublin on the 7^th of March, ‘the first basis of security for a country, just as with personal security, is not to threaten any other country, and not to be seen as aligned militarily with countries whose overseas interests appear to pose a threat’.

We must distinguish between ‘defence’ and ‘security’. Defence is a typical response when we ‘feel’ threatened – whether the threat is real or not. It has no place in secure relationships. If we are defensive in our relationships with others (whether personal or international), we lose trust and become suspicious, we shut down communication, we blind ourselves to the good in the other, and we interpret everything in a way to reinforce our sense (and our narrative) of threat. This is a sad rejection of ‘the ideal of peace and friendly co-operation amongst nations’ (Article 29, Bunreacht na hÉireann).

To read the full text of the letter please go to our ‘News & Views’ page entry *30-09-2026. Link:https://keepirelandneutral.ie/news-views/

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‘The Irish Government is helping to usher in a new wartime economy in Europe’

‘At the launch of the White Paper for European Defence – Readiness 2030, Ursula von der Leyen declared the era of Europe’s peace dividend “long gone”. Peace, apparently, was a phase that we have now outgrown.

The EU’s centre of gravity has rapidly moved from a focus on trading to armament, as outlined by von der Leyen in early 2025, and this transfer of meaning is not happening through defence memorandums but through nation state treasuries. Consider the following: the European Commission is in the midst of mobilising €800 billion defence spending by 2030; more than 15 member states have activated “escape clauses” to enable an economic breach of fiscal rules to procure weapons; €150 billion of so-called “bomb bonds” has been raised for collective borrowing; a new multilateral bank – the Defence, Security and Resilience Bank – is targeting hundreds of billions of euro, with Belgium, Greece, Romania, Latvia and Ukraine among its founders; Canada has been admitted as a non-EU member state, in a leadership role, on many of these initiatives.

What if Europe is no longer a trading bloc that hopes to enable peace, but a geographic union whose budgets and institutions are being rebuilt around the certainty of war?

In February, Canada became the first non-EU member state admitted to Europe’s joint weapons-procurement fund, with Canadian firms being allowed to supply up to 80 per cent of Europe’s arms contracts, more than twice the cap applied to any other outside country. Further, Europe’s new defence bank is Canadian-led, despite being Luxembourg-based. Put another way, a North American G7 heavyweight, and a founding Nato member, now exists within the EU’s defence architecture.

What then, when confronted with these facts, does the European Union resemble more closely – a single-market trading bloc with a foreign policy, or a defence alliance with a currency backed by wartime industrialisation?

This change is all but reversible. Germany’s broken industrial model – of using cheap Russian energy that came with a price that was never accounted for to manufacture cars that are more expensive than their Chinese equivalents – has been catastrophic for local jobs and communities. But in this vacuum, the economic lottery ticket of wartime manufacturing provides an immediate relief, as expensive energy doesn’t matter when the customer is the government itself – buying ammunition.

Thus, Europe has stumbled into a new growth paradigm built on militarisation that comes with a large economic reliance on the permanent threat of war.

Similar to Germany, Emmanuel Macron’s France has doubled its defence budget since 2017 with several austerity measures in place for social spending. The fastest growing large economy in Europe – Poland– now allocates a quarter of its budget to weapons. Joining on this new strategy on Europe’s periphery is the UK – with a new Defence Investment Plan favouring military investments over transport and energy infrastructure, while incentivising British firms to engage more deeply with the defence supply chain.

Meanwhile, the urgency to grant Ukraine immediate accession to Europe has only accelerated Europe’s largest postwar restructuring. Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s request goes far beyond just enlargement; it is viewed as a useful vehicle through which Europe can be reindustrialised for war – to rebuild its defence-industrial base and to make more concrete a new security architecture.

This is happening, in part, in Dublin. Through the assumption of the EU presidency, it is Irish ministers who are contouring Europe’s new form by leading these very negotiations on accession and defence alike. Somewhere between discussions on GDPR and agricultural subsidies, the architecture of this new military pact is being defined.

But do our elected politicians realise that they are convening a new continental war economy, most likely away from our own interests? As Europe’s fiscal and industrial growth becomes tightly coupled with a permanent war-footing and increasingly reliant on government spending through the current war, is there a gross misalignment of incentives – that we should want this war to end, while our economy will need it to continue?

While it is true that post-American European power urgently needs a new security model in addition to a new economic model whether these two become the same is a deeply moral and political question for the member states with skin in the game.

Ireland’s relationship with neutrality has not yet updated to this new reality. We obsess over whether Ireland might one day find itself joining Nato without realising that we may already be inside the new defence alliance that will eventually take Nato’s place.

Amid the most consequential realignment of European power since its formation, what remains of the Republic’s role in a militarised union with no fiscal or industrial leverage against its peers? With an unsubstantiated and ill-defined agreement between the State and its citizens on the topic of neutrality, can Irish people trust that a wink and a nod from the political class will suffice to safeguard our desire for non-alignment? And trust whom, exactly?‘ (above emphasis our own)

To read the full article please go to our News & Views page entry *29-08-2026. Link: https://keepirelandneutral.ie/news-views/

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WHAT IS THE GOVERNMENT PLANNING?

In recent years, the Irish government has deepened its ties with EU military structures and NATO, continued to allow US military aircraft to use Shannon Airport, and permitted flights carrying weapons to Israel through Irish airspace. Irish neutrality is being hollowed out – there are new ‘defense’ partnerships with the French navy and others, and most significant of all, the Dublin government is pushing legislative change to allow Irish troop deployments on EU or NATO-led missions.

By seeking to dismantle the Triple Lock — removing the requirement for a UN mandate before deploying Irish troops — the government is further undermining our neutrality. This move not only damages Ireland’s hard-earned international reputation but also increases the risk of being drawn into military operations at the behest of the United States and its allies.

THE NORTH

There is also a real push to re-militarise the north to support NATO activities, citing Irish security ‘freeloading’, the possibility of a united Ireland hostile to NATO interests, and using cold war rhetoric to talk up the threat of Russia, China and Iran.

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Act Now !

Now is the time for us all to stress the importance of Irish Neutrality and oppose foreign wars.

Please take action now to keep the Triple Lock and to help protect Irish Neutrality.

1. Contact your local radio station.

You can write, message or call your local radio station to defend the Triple Lock and Irish Neutrality. Ask for the News Room, or any Current Affairs or Magazine programmes that the station broadcasts.

Also, you can phone-in to your local station if anything is broadcast that touches on any issues connected with militarism and neutrality . You can speak as a concerned individual or represent the group that you are involved in.

• Check-out our Act Now! pages for a list of local radio stations with their contact details, and some talking points to assist you when making that call.
• List of local radio stations.
• Link: https://keepirelandneutral.ie/contact-your-local-radio-station/
• Points Countering Government Arguments on Removing the Triple Lock.
• Link: https://keepirelandneutral.ie/points-countering-government-arguments-on-removing-the-triple-lock/

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2. Contact your local Fianna Fail TDs.

Not all Fianna Fail TDs agree with the undermining of Irish Neutrality by their leader Micheál Martin, but not all of these elected representatives have the courage to speak out against government plans- such as removing the Triple Lock. If enough people contact their local Fianna Fail TDs asking them to protect our neutrality and speak out against removing the Triple Lock it will encourage them to represent their electorate’s views.

• For a ready-to-send email template see: OurNeutrality.ie Protect Ireland’s Military Neutrality

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3. Contact all your constituency government TDs.

We know that the opposition parties are against abolition of the Triple Lock, but where do the government TDs of your own constituency stand? Please contact them by email or post to ask them to vote against any change to the Triple Lock.

• Find your constituency TDs here: https://www.contactyourtd.ie/

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4. Sign and share this Uplift petition to Triple Lock our Future.

5. Send these 5 demands on the Energy Crisis and Peace to your TDs.

NEUTRALITY ROADSHOW

To share facts on Neutrality and promote the movement to keep the Triple Lock we have recorded an online NEUTRALITY ROADSHOW.

As part of our grassroots campaign we embarked on a roadshow to talk Irish neutrality and explain the need to protect the Triple Lock with the public. Featuring a host of expert speakers, the Neutrality Roadshow has been touring the country to create a space for open dialogue and discussion, and be there to answer questions and allay fears.

Now you have the opportunity to watch the Neutrality Roadshow online.

The online event featured Patrick Bresnihan, Rory Rowan and Fionn Wallace. They spoke about the importance of preserving Ireland’s neutrality and the Triple Lock system, the militarisation of the EU, International Law, sub-sea cables, the need for social and ecological security, not armed (in)security, and more.

Watch and share the online NEUTRALITY ROADSHOW here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=encdd0PLlXE

Knowledge Base

You can read about the Triple Lock: what you need to know, plus answers to the many questions you may have.

Check out ‘The Triple Lock Fact Sheet’ April 2026 here:-https://keepirelandneutral.ie/knowledge-base/

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Defence (Amendment) Bill 2026 brought before the Dáil 16th June 2026

The Bill is currently before Dáil Éireann, First Stage.

For full text of Bill see: https://data.oireachtas.ie/ie/oireachtas/bill/2026/63/eng/initiated/b6326d.pdf

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BRIEFING PAPER: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025 by the Dáil Research Service.

This Briefing Paper proves to be a valuable resource.

‘The Price of Prosperity: How U.S. FDI is Enabling Genocide in Gaza and Eroding Our Neutrality’

by Paulie Doyle, Patrick Bresnihan and Patrick Brodie.

Read the full report here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Be6SJcDB1-6VBCrUL44Ig5eW_0yhnMRM/view?usp=sharing

Part of ‘The Neutrality Files’ by Uplift.

‘The Neutrality Files’ brings together detailed research and investigations into attempts by the arms industry, NATO states, and certain politicians to undermine and ultimately destroy our neutrality.

Neutrality means we choose peace over war, and independence over obedience to bodies like NATO and European army generals.

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Council Motions

A number of Local Councils across the island of Ireland have passed motions opposing a government imposed removal of the Triple Lock agreement.

Motions on this subject have been passed by :

Derry-Strabane, Mid-Ulster, Cavan, Donegal, Dublin City, Dublin South, Galway City, Limerick, Louth, Mayo, Waterford, Wexford and most recently Cork City.

ICTU response to Government’s proposed removal of triple lock.

‘Commenting on the Cabinet approval for the Defence Amendment Bill, Irish Congress of Trade Unions General Secretary Owen Reidy said:

“Ireland’s strong record of service on UN peacekeeping missions is something of which the Irish public are rightly proud. The country’s commitment to multilateralism and the international rule of law is a core tenet of our foreign policy.

“The Government’s decision to move ahead with the Defence Amendment Bill, which would remove the triple lock, is therefore short-sighted, and would abandon these principles which have served Ireland well over the course of decades.

“The triple lock is an important backstop against the Government of the day deploying Defence Force personnel in instances that may not be supported by international law. While we accept that the current Government has no such intention, it should be aware of potential unforeseen consequences in future.

“While acknowledging the need for reform in the security council, removing the UN from this process weakens the guarantee that deployments carry formal legal sanction. At a moment when such institutions and processes are under attack, we should be proud to maintain our commitment to them.

“The Government’s blunt approach to abolition of the triple lock also does a disservice to a much-needed debate on Ireland’s approach to its defence in the current geopolitical climate. The trade union movement urges them to reconsider this approach, and engage substantively with the Irish public on these matters”.’

Issued June 09, 2026 *Source: https://www.ictu.ie/news/ictu-response-governments-proposed-removal-triple-lock

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*For more News & Views please scroll through our News & Views page: https://keepirelandneutral.ie/news-views/

RESOURCES

To find a number of fact sheets, fliers etc. that you can download and use to aid you in campaigning in your own community to Keep Ireland Neutral & to Keep the Triple Lock, please check out our Knowledge Base/ Resources Page: https://keepirelandneutral.ie/knowledge-base/

Examples below.

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PAST EVENTS

Pictures and details of just some of the past events.

“The Legacy of Frank Aiken and the role of small countries in times of danger and uncertainty” seminar. Dublin, April 2025. Speakers: Dr. Stephen Kelly (Liverpool Hope University), Dr. Patrick Bresnihan (Maynooth University), Dr. John Maguire, Professor Emeritus of Sociology at University College Cork. Organised by Lex Innocentium 21st Century/ Irish School of Ecumenics. Video of the event below. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0HP1qNtUSg

A few pictures from the ‘Triple Lock our Future’ action outside the Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis. Friday 15/5/2026. (Courtesy of Uplift)

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Contact Us: info@keepirelandneutral.ie

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