Madam, - Karen Devine (November 25th-27th) leaves out a few key facts in her defence of Irish neutrality. While Ireland was never formally invited to join Nato, it was involved in informal discussions to join the alliance when it was being formulated. These foundered due to John A Costello's continuation of Eamon de Valera's policy of refusing to countenance entering into an alliance with Britain while the issue of the six counties remained unresolved. Costello later proposed a bilateral defensive alliance with the USA as a "back door" into Nato, which the USA declined to consider.
This is not an academic point. Ireland's neutrality was born out of our refusal to constructively engage with Britain and make common cause with European democracies against fascist, and later Soviet, totalitarian aggression. The policy, even of "positive" neutrality during the second World War, alienated the state from an emerging European community and cut us off from access to funding under the Marshall Plan.
To the rest of Europe, Ireland had made a cynical calculation that it could shelter behind the Allies' and Nato's shield while contributing nothing to its spear, contributing to our long isolation from the continent and accompanying economic and cultural stagnation. Dr Devine's implication that Irish neutrality was born out of some vague commitment to "peace promotion", "non-aggression" and an opposition to bloc politics is a distortion of the historical record.
Whatever the merits of Irish neutrality as a policy today, its formulation represented a profound intellectual and moral failure of our foreign policy, with major deleterious long-term consequences for the development of the State.
The continued paranoia in certain sectors of Irish society over non-existent threats to neutrality supposedly contained in the Lisbon Treaty is demonstrative of the continued parochialism of our foreign policy and our failure to engage comprehensively with our European neighbours.
If Ireland is to maintain its status as a neutral State in a way that is both beneficial to its own interests and the international community at large, it is imperative we approach the subject in a clear-eyed manner, and above all with a historically critical eye.
Otherwise our neutrality will remain what it has always been - cynicism recast as a sacred cow, propped up by wishful thinking, and misplaced self-righteousness. - Yours, etc,
DARAGH McDOWELL,
Drummartin Terrace,
Goatstown,
Dublin 14.