Ruairí Ó Murchú: Warns Removing Triple Lock Threatens Neutrality
Ruairí Ó Murchú addresses a proposal to remove the triple lock, arguing it would undermine Ireland's long-standing neutrality and non-alignment. He criticises the government's handling of Shannon and warns against closer alignment with the United States and others.
Main argument: Ruairí Ó Murchú says the only real rationale for removing the triple lock is to move away from Ireland's history of non-alignment. He questions what concrete opportunities the state has lost because of the triple lock and stresses the risk of abandoning a policy of having clean hands in international affairs.
Shannon and foreign alignment: Ó Murchú singles out the government's record on Shannon, accusing it of facilitating US military access and of failing to hold those arrangements to account. He links that facilitation to broader foreign policy choices and to military campaigns with deadly consequences.
Middle East and peacekeeping: The speech confronts recent violence in the Middle East and criticises the role of the US and Israel. Ó Murchú highlights the experiences of Irish peacekeepers and describes the current situation as involving extreme measures by the Israeli regime.
Demand for independent policy: He calls for an independent foreign policy and says the government fears the Irish people. Ó Murchú challenges the government to test public opinion and argues that removing the triple lock would strip an important protection for neutrality.
Main argument: Ruairí Ó Murchú says the only real rationale for removing the triple lock is to move away from Ireland's history of non-alignment. He questions what concrete opportunities the state has lost because of the triple lock and stresses the risk of abandoning a policy of having clean hands in international affairs.
Shannon and foreign alignment: Ó Murchú singles out the government's record on Shannon, accusing it of facilitating US military access and of failing to hold those arrangements to account. He links that facilitation to broader foreign policy choices and to military campaigns with deadly consequences.
Middle East and peacekeeping: The speech confronts recent violence in the Middle East and criticises the role of the US and Israel. Ó Murchú highlights the experiences of Irish peacekeepers and describes the current situation as involving extreme measures by the Israeli regime.
Demand for independent policy: He calls for an independent foreign policy and says the government fears the Irish people. Ó Murchú challenges the government to test public opinion and argues that removing the triple lock would strip an important protection for neutrality.
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Transcript
We have a long history in Ireland of resistance to colonial oppression and we have a long history of a liberation struggle, unfinished completely. But the fact is, what is this government promising? The removal of the triple lock because it doesn't really matter. The fact is the only logic behind removing the triple lock is moving away from our long history of non-alignment, of having clean hands, which there's definitely space for in this modern world, and what? What have we been stopped from on the basis of the triple lock? That's what I want to know. But my fear is not about what we have been stopped from, it's what this government is willing to do, who it is willing to align itself with. We have seen the absolute failure to deal with Shannon and facilitating the American military through many of its absolute failures and escapades that have led to nothing but death and destruction, whether we're talking about Iraq and Afghanistan, and that's long before Donald Trump came to power, and we're dealing with the reality and the madness of Iran. We know our own, of the attacks on Iran by the US and led by the nose by the genocidal Israel, and what about Israel? We have a great history of peacekeeping, but what have our peacekeepers been dealing with lately? They've been dealing with the absolutely genocidal ethnic cleansing acts of an Israeli regime, supported by the US, out of control, and what are we talking about doing? We are talking about removing one of the protections we have in relation to neutrality and in relation to non-alignment. What we need to see is foreign, we need independent foreign policy, and there is an absolute fear from this government of the Irish people. If you're serious about it, put it to them, but you won't because you're afraid of their view, and their view is we cannot remove neutrality, we cannot remove the triple lock, but I have yet to see any courage from this government, and you will just follow whoever you need to, on the basis of being the best boys as regards the US or European Union.