Madam, - Jerry Crowley (Letters, May 23rd) claims that , Bertie Ahern and his Government "has shredded Ireland's constitutional neutrality" by allowing the United States military to use Shannon airport - which has been the practice for some 40 years.
There is no such thing as "constitutional neutrality". Article 28.3.1 of Bunreacht na hÉireann states: "War shall not be declared and the State shall not participate in any war save with the assent of Dáil Éireann". Therefore we can in fact declare war and participate in a war with the assent of the Dáil.
Ireland has never been a neutral state and those who claim it is or has been are ignoring historical facts. During the second World War, we assisted the allies.
We then sought a defence pact with the United States following the creation of Nato. Taoisigh Seán Lemass and Jack Lynch both publicly stated that Ireland was not a neutral state and should not be considered as one. By virtue of membership of the United Nations, we were not neutral during the 1991 Gulf War and indeed assisted in that campaign. And then as the United States led a Nato campaign in Kosovo in 1999, we were not neutral.
It is time Ireland has a mature and proper debate about its foreign policy.
The continuing promulgated myth that we are a "neutral" state is absurd and if Ireland's hour has indeed come, as the Taoiseach said in Westminster, let's start talking maturely about our place in the world. - Yours, etc,
TOM WARD, Monastery Road, Dublin 22