The moves to sacrifice our neutrality have been signalled by successive governments since Sean Lemass indicated that such a price might be necessary to secure our membership of the exclusive European first-division club.
The Irish people have never had the opportunity to express their view on the abandonment of Irish neutrality because all recent governments at election times have fraudulently assured the electorate that our neutrality was not at risk.
The Fianna Fail leadership under Bertie Ahern publicly assured the electorate just before the last general election that no decision would be taken on neutrality without a referendum. That electoral promise has since been reneged on. This U-turn suggests that the Government does not trust the people to support its commitment to a European army.
In the meantime, Irish neutrality has been eroded by stealth. In 1997, a small detachment of Irish troops was placed under the command of NATO in the Sfor force in Bosnia, even before Ireland had joined the NATO-led Partnership for Peace (PfP). We have since sent a further unit of Irish soldiers to serve under NATO command with Kfor in Kosovo. Further erosion of our neutrality came with our formal joining of the PfP in 1999, and now it would appear that Ireland is about to contribute a battalion of troops to the European rapid reaction force, thereby ending Irish neutrality.
At each stage of this neutrality-eroding process the public has been assured that its neutrality was not being compromised. On each occasion the public has been lied to. The Government's decision to commit troops to what I believe is a military alliance is in clear breach of the norms of political and military neutrality. In spite of assurances to the contrary, this will be the end of the line for Ireland as a neutral country.
Since the case for Ireland maintaining its neutrality is too complex to develop fully here, this article will confine itself to outlining some of the possible consequences of our Government's proposed abandonment of neutrality within the next month.
Decisions on hypothetical issues such as neutrality are easily arrived at in times of relative peace.
To our brave politicians, there may seem little prospect of Irish soldiers coming home in plastic body bags to Dublin Airport after losing their lives fighting a war to protect the economic best interests of the United States and its principal allies, Britain, Germany and France.
Since the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, global hegemony rests almost exclusively with the main NATO powers, among which the US is dominant. Minor members of NATO such as Belgium or Greece have virtually no influence in key decisions on the use of war to extend the political power of NATO's big four.
This was demonstrated when Greece failed to prevent NATO bombing of its political and religious ally Serbia in 1999.
Ireland will have even less say within any European military alliance. The Irish people should also be aware that the norms of international law were breached by the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia and by the continuing bombing of Iraq by British and US forces. Ireland could be complicit in such questionable acts of war if we continue down this road of military alliances.
Far from benefiting Ireland financially, this new commitment will cost the taxpayer dearly. It should be remembered that the £40 million already committed for armoured personnel carriers was intended to support our UN peacekeeping commitments, and the type of vehicles being purchased are wheeled and suitable for peacekeeping rather than peacemaking or crisis management operations, such as the war against Iraq.
The requirement for the European rapid reaction force is most likely to be for a mechanised infantry battalion, which implies tracked and heavily-armoured vehicles. In other words, we are talking about spending in the region of an additional £100 million of taxpayers' money just to equip such a mechanised battalion.
As a member of the Defence Forces for over 20 years I - like tens of thousands of other Irish soldiers - served with the United Nations, risking our lives for the cause of peace. In the 30-year period from 1960 to 1990, 70 Irish soldiers died while serving with the UN.
The Irish people also very clearly indicated that they supported this peacekeeping role for the Irish soldiers.
A further trip back in history is needed to jog our memories on what could be in store for Irish soldiers. John Redmond, leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, supported the British war effort in the first World War, on the basis that we were helping to defend small nations such as Belgium. It was a con-trick by the Entente powers of the day.
The small nations of Europe, and indeed the world, were as much at risk from the Entente powers as they were from the German-led powers. Colonial Britain, France, and even little Belgium and Holland, continued to exploit and abuse the freedom and democracy of dozens of small countries until they were forced out in the aftermath of the second World War.
Up to 50,000 Irish soldiers died defending imperialism in the first World War. This was a dreadful, unnecessary waste of human resources. Most of the families of these soldiers never got to see their graves. Many were never buried, just lost in the mud.
The 50,000 dead was the most catastrophic disaster to afflict the Irish people since the Great Famine of the 1840s, yet it is almost forgotten today. .
We are now about to allow our present-day John Redmonds to make decisions on our behalf that could send our sons and our daughters to their deaths defending very questionable US-UK or Franco-German-directed economic objectives, under the guise of crisis management. The questions we must ask include: Whose crisis? Under whose management? Who is giving the Government authority to send our children to die in the next global flashpoint?
In 1988, the Nobel Prize for Peace was awarded to the United Nations peacekeeping forces. One of my most cherished possessions is the United Nations Medal for Peace, which I and every Irish soldier who served as a United Nations peacekeeper was awarded.
If Ireland, as is expected, loses its neutrality by committing Irish troops to the European rapid reaction force, then I intend, as an act of protest, to hand back my UN Peace Medal to the Government. In addition, I will be encouraging other Irish soldiers and ex-soldiers to do the same. Those Irish soldiers who died for peace must not be allowed to have died in vain.
Edward J. Horgan is a retired commandant who served in the De- fence Forces from 1963 to 1986, including assignments with United Nations peacekeeping forces in Cyprus and the Middle East in 1966, 1971, and 1973. He completed a postgraduate degree in Peace Studies at the Irish School of Ecumenics in 1999.