Republican News · Thursday 10 October 2002

For a real independent Irish foreign policy

PANA Conference

A distinguished gathering of specialists in their field came together to discuss Ireland's foreign policy at a day-long conference organised by the Peace and Neutrality Alliance last weekend.

Councillor Dermot Lacey, Lord Mayor of Dublin, who gave the opening address, set the tone. "It is immoral that in Ireland, with unprecented wealth - some say we are now the second richest county in the world- that our aid to the third world is falling." Caoimhe de Barra from Trocaire took up the point. Ireland reneged on our commitment in September 2000 to make aid 0.7% of our GNP. By May of this year, our objective was lowered to 0.41%.

"Historically, the quality of our overseas aid programme has been without parallel, and contributed to our high standing which won Ireland a seat on the Security Council. But we no longer command this respect, because of our falling aid, because of our treatment of refugees, and because our independence in matters of trade and foreign policy are increasingly undermined by our alignment with world power blocs."

As Raymond Deane of the Palestine Ireland Solidarity Campaign pointed out, the heady days when Ireland had the respect of the third world, when Frank Aitken led the League of Nations, the days when Ireland, under the United Nations, sent contingents to the Belgian Congo and the Lebanon in support of peace, against the machinations of world powers - these days are gone. And equally, the United Nations itself is becoming a 'facilitator of war', rather than enforcing its resolutions upon which world peace might be based. He instanced the failure to enforce UN Resolutions regarding Palestine.

Michael Bermingham, of the Campaign to end Iraqi sanctions, pursued the point in relation to War on Iraq, and referred to Article 29 of the Constitution which affirms adherence to the principle of the pacific settlement of international disputes by international arbitration or judicial determination.

Douglas Hamilton, recently returned from Cuba, took up the point in relation to the economic blockade of Cuba and its most damaging and unjustifiable effects. He raised important questions of what constitutes neutrality, and what are the constituents of an Independent Foreign Policy. Which issues, of course, brought the whole conference to the question of today, Nice 2 and the militarisation of the EU power bloc.

Roger Cole, chairperson of PANA, talked of the huge military build up of the Rapid Reaction Force, to which Ireland, unconstitutionally, has subscribed. The RRF has defined its role to militarily engage 1,500 miles beyond the ever expanding EU borders. "This is not a force designed to promote peace, so much as tool of aggression to advance the political and economic designs of a power bloc which Nice 2 underwrites, which seeks to undermine the voice of independence and neutrality of its member states," said Cole.