„Ein Haufen Trittbrettfahrer“: Der britische Druck auf Irland, in die Verteidigung zu investieren, nimmt zu

The question I have is this

What is the position of the Irish Government and why does the Irish Times‘ article contain no quotes or contributions from members of the Irish Government?

It seems a remarkably biased article and I’m wondering who the audience is.

The best way to get Ireland to not do something, is for the UK to increase pressure. 

No use

They would rather lecture us about how Russia is the real victim in the Ukraine war and how NATO is actually the agressor.

Ireland is the virtue signaling capital of Europe while meanwhile being the biggest tax haven of the EU.

They al suffer from west bad brainrot after the fucked up things the Brits did to them.

Everyone needs to pull together. There’s no room for ’neutrality‘ in this world. We stand together or we fall apart.

As a Brit no one here gives a monkeys about defending them it just happens, it’s a non conversation among everyday people. As it stands after all part of their island is part of the UK that’s being defended regardless, by default.

We see them as a good ally and friend regardless of the past and are very similar in lots of ways.

As a none Irish person I can’t really answer this but I would imagine it would make sense and wouldn’t cost them much really to have a single squadron of of fast jet interceptors for their own air space defence and 1-3 frigates they could do all this relatively cheap. And they would have their own independent capability.

The RAF or other European airforces could train their pilots.

I’m sure the British government would happily take on an extra order for a couple of type 26/31 frigates, they are building these anyway for many other allied nations.

Just let Ireland learn like we in Norway learned 😛

We are not doing our „Broken gun“ policy again.

„If we do not spend on military, surely we wont be a target for military conquest“

Que the music and ww2 happen.

Turns out Germany did not care that we wanted to be neutral.
And our broken gun policy made it really easy compared to what taking a nation like Norway should have been.
Its Afghanistan on forest, island, lakes and swamp steroids. Would be hell for the German Blitzkrieg if properly defended. Hard to blitz thru that terrain.

The era of neutrality in Europe has come to end; Sweden has joined NATO, Switzerland has joined sactions and froze Russian assets, Austria is coperating with EU on security matters

I agree with brits here, Ireland needs to read the room, and start using some of that megacorp wealth for security.

~~But the truely funny part is, that Ireland hasn’t been completely neutral since a while:~~

~~> Article 42.7 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU), states that if an EU member state is the victim of armed aggression on its territory, the other member states have an obligation to aid and assist **by all the means in their power**~~

~~So regardless if Ireland has their own security aperatus, an adversary fighting any other EU member, ireland will be involved somehow. Edit: not per sé militarily~~

Edit: I didn’t know Ireland had an opt-out on that

I’m Irish and think that we definitely need to heavily invest in our own defence. Being a neutral country for a long time was an easy excuse but the world is different now and we need to be able to look after ourselves.

Always remained Neutral. Even during Nazi Germany times, Ireland was Neutral .. says a lot about their mentality tbh. We should immediately stop any funding and get them to pay .. not a member of NATO .. many European countries just don’t want to contribute.. Austria is another of these lazy nations.

The whole of EU are a bunch of freeloaders and basically vassals of the U.S. Until they acknowledge that and take steps that won’t change.

And actually the UK has a point here. Ireland is a massive freeloader, not only in defense but also economically with their tax-haven policies. I’m very glad we got the royal british navy taking responsibility!