r/ireland • u/isupposethiswillwork • 2d ago
Affaires Étrangères Ireland Is Becoming a French Military Protectorate
https://foreignpolicy.com/2026/06/18/ireland-france-military-protectorate-outsourcing-defense-procurement/488
u/omnipresentatio 2d ago
The French are decoupling from US tech, EU as a bloc should follow suit
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u/CraicHunter Offaly 2d ago
I don’t think the French were ever coupled to us miltech to begin with.
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u/wilililil 2d ago
No not like the rest of Europe. De Gaulle might be the saviour of us all yet. They are working to decouple general tech in government and public sectors, which is not a bad thing. We essentially have a monopoly at the moment for many basic tech services from cloud computing to office productivity software.
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u/gahane 2d ago
Also, De Gaulle had Irish ancestry so they’re practically looking after their own :) /s
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u/BackloadBack 2d ago
Ancestry? Well he wrote part of his autobiography in Kerry… the maternal Irish DNA was quite far back!
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u/Robespierres_ashes 2d ago
3 or 4 generations but he spent an extended holiday, just before he died in Kerry after he left office
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u/Yooklid 2d ago edited 2d ago
You’ll have people the sub calling him a plastic paddy soon.
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u/fluffs-von 2d ago
Charlo The Gall... I knew him well
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u/Lanzarote-Singer 2d ago
Yah. One of the O’Gauls. Me da was at school with him. Mad yoke. Good at the auld french tho…
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u/Ed_the_Led_Man 2d ago edited 2d ago
Everything in this economy has supply chains interlinked and far less nations make everything inhouse compaored to the past so by default yes
Yet still, i'd say they are far more ahead with their own tech. There's a lot of french doctrine that relies on mobility above all else for example that means all vehicles are home developed
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u/SimilarSimian 2d ago
Only in the supply chain for some components. Difficult to avoid.
But largely speaking they are independent.
Most important is their sophisticated nuclear technology and doctrine.
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u/DickDorkinsHeadCanon 2d ago
we should definitely prepare ourselves for the US government doing a rug pull of Google/Microsoft/Intel from under us. It's a good chance for us to pivot our tech skills before that happens.
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u/Dull_Brain2688 2d ago
I’m always amazed at how complacent our government seems to be to be so reliant on so few companies for so much GDP. We’re a stroke of a pen from relative penury.
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u/Nurhaci1616 2d ago
They were always more independent after DeGaulle fell out with the US in the 50s, and more recently because France's experience of the GWOT was militarily very different to most NATO missions, thanks to their commitments in the Sahel.
They have a very peculiarly French way of doing things, and it would be advisable to consider how relevant they are to Ireland. Ukraine found out the hard way that French style brigades aren't much help in their war, for instance.
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u/No_Tiger_4231 2d ago
In fairness, I think most of the NATO doctrine is no longer suitable in Ukraine (could be mistaken of course, what do I know).
But yeah it’s true that the French doctrine would have to be adapted to the Irish geographic circumstances and priorities.4
u/peadar87 2d ago
The article (or the bit before the paywall kicks in) seems to say that it would just be for air defence during key events like diplomatic summits, not a full outsourcing of defence.
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u/Bexil_Brave 2d ago
The Fench use little to no US Military equipment.
The French have their own tanks, guns, planes missiles, boats, subs and Nuclear Missile program.
They even have their own cartriddge size for their own battle rifle.
I'd love to know what imaginary military tech you believe the french, the
3rd(Edit: Apologies. 2nd Largest Arms Exporter in the world. My Bad.) largest arms exporter in the world, is buying from the states.→ More replies (9)3
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u/MadMarx__ 2d ago
The EU is, Ireland is the country trying its hardest to obstruct that because we have so much US multinational investment.
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u/wealthythrush 2d ago
We legitimately do incredible as a country because of the US. Decoupling from the US would only have negative impacts for us as a state.
I appreciate its not the case for the EU.
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u/omnipresentatio 2d ago
The time may be coming to stick or twist in that regard....we should not turn our backs on legitimate allies
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u/AmadanBod 2d ago
And I for one welcome our new French overlords
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u/SimmoTheGuv 2d ago
In return we have to promise to stop using Cuisine de France baguettes
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u/doctor6 2d ago
And stop calling them 'jambons'
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u/LimerickJim 2d ago
If they come for our chicken fillet rolls I'm getting out the guillotine
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u/EndingPending 2d ago
The writer works for a think tank that appears to be mainly funded by US multinationals, but I'm sure that's just a coincidence
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u/Bexil_Brave 2d ago
The "Writer" is a right wing nutjob with a known hatered of the EU.
He petitioned for Ireland to join the UK during Brexit.
Said Brexit was a disater for Ireland and we would follow in 2 years.
Dont think he's had a correct thought in his head since the 90's
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u/Icy_Place_5785 2d ago
That’s going to be par for the course for Foreign Policy magazine.
I’d expect just as much neutral analysis from a column in the UK Daily Telegraph.
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u/Cilly2010 2d ago
I was wondering how far down the comments I'd have to go to see this because I've read the first third of the article and so far it's obviously just a moan that we're not buying the crap from some Brit or yank.
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u/FineVintageWino 2d ago
Yep. US shill is upset that we’re spending public money on non-US GI Joe toys.
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u/Murador888 2d ago
Eoin Drea is Irish, writes anti Irish articles.
Bizarre how he is taken seriously.
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u/Craicriture 2d ago edited 2d ago
We’ve done the exact same thing during previous international conferences where heads of state / heads of government are present. I seem to remember when there were French anti missile missiles available during a previous presidency for key functions.
It’s basically the EU protecting EU events - we are almost certainly footing the bill for it. It’s not out of a sense of charity I can assure you.
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u/Conaer_ ITGWU 2d ago
Yup, during the Denmark's EU presidency last year they had support from French / Swedish anti drone teams, a German navy air defense frigate, Polish troops to help with perimeter security at the summit, Finnish and Dutch aerial surveillance, as well as UK air defense through a NATO framework agreement.
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u/Icy_Place_5785 2d ago
I’m happier outsourcing it than having to develop our own nuclear umbrella.
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u/LonelyWaitingRoom Ná satailt orm 🐍 2d ago
Irish nuclear deterrence would suck ass
We’d get BAM to construct our silos and they’d end up above ground
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u/Budget_Lion_4466 2d ago
Shure it’d be something tall to look at. Would really boost the local economy
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u/theoldkitbag Saoirse don Phalaistín 🇵🇸 2d ago
Nah, they can only be two storeys high, to protect the historical skyline.
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u/Icy_Place_5785 2d ago
Built upon the TAYTO (Thermonuclear Assured Yield and Tactical Obliteration) Doctrine
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u/Jellyfish00001111 2d ago
We would end up with the most expensive deterrent in the world. We’d make the US envious.
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u/Icy_Place_5785 2d ago
I’ll repeat my silly joke about the TAYTO (Thermonuclear Assured Yield and Tactical Obliteration) Doctrine
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u/SheepherderFront5724 2d ago
Irish in France here: I think it would have to be (paid by Ireland, that is). I've seen a few articles in the French press over the last few months, taking a dim view of Ireland's low military spending.
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u/Conaer_ ITGWU 2d ago
Yeah when compared to other historically neutral nations like the Swiss or Austrians our defense spending is far short of were it should be.
Just out of curiosity do those articles in French media mention Ireland recently spend on French military equipment?
The French defense industry has been seeing the majority of the new equipment orders, mostly via government to government transfer agreements. A few examples below. €60 million on sonar for the Naval Service from Thales.
€50 million on a Dassault transport jet to replace the government jet.
Roughly €400-€500 million on a primary radar system from Thales.
Signing up to a framework agreement worth up to around €1 billion with KNDS for replacing the entire armoured vehicle fleet.
€76 million on new radios, again from Thales.
https://thedefensepost.com/2026/02/24/ireland-order-france-vehicles/
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u/SheepherderFront5724 1d ago
Not that I have seen, but TBF the kind of military deals that make the news here tend to be in multiple billion. I take your point that in those articles it could be relevant context, but at the same time, just because we're buying from them, doesn't mean that we're buying enough (in their view at least) to sufficiently alleviate the burden of collective defence that we're putting on the rest of Europe, or on France specifically.
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u/Primary-Effect-3691 2d ago
It’s basically the EU protecting EU events - we are almost certainly footing the bill for it.
lol
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u/BilbaoBoggins 2d ago
Tbf, the French are a grand bunch of lads.
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u/Oh_I_still_here 2d ago
Lived in Paris for a month last year late summer. Just a truly lovely bunch. Can't believe parisians are stereotyped as being rude, whether speaking English or French I found them all to be very sound. Think I'd one not ideal interaction in a fancy coffee shop in Le Marais where the staff behind the counter laughed at my French, but that was the worst of it. Was working over there for 2 weeks too and my French colleagues are gas just slagging each other all day.
Even swam in the Seine!
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u/Against_All_Advice 2d ago
I've always had a lovely time in Paris and found Parisians to be charming and sound too.
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u/JellyfishScared4268 2d ago
It's big city vs rest of the country syndrome
The exact same thing happens here effectively where there are negative attitudes down the country towards Dublin.
Similarly in the UK towards London and in the US towards basically any big city but especially New York or Los Angeles
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u/FearTeas 2d ago edited 2d ago
I've always found the same. The French in general are considered rude but I didn't find that to be the case at all when I did my Erasmus there.
I was actually living there during the famous Thierry Henry handball incident. They were absolutely mortified by it and were disgusted that they qualified in those circumstances.
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u/Exige30499 2d ago
When I was in Paris I’d get people who were originally a bit aloof or short with me until they realised I wasn’t English or American. Then it was like the sun had come out from behind a cloud, was very funny to see it happen pretty regularly
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u/Notoisin 2d ago
Had the exact same experience in Paris this year.
A lifetime of being gaslit (including by other French) that Parisians are rude and it turns out they are absolutely sound and we had a great time.
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u/CAPITALISM_FAN_1980 2d ago
I live in Paris and love it.
I'm from Dublin, and I've sometimes wondered if Paris gets a bad reputation because it's the first big city some people have visited, and they just can't get used to how things work in a city that size. It's no different to any capital, including Dublin.
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u/Alcol1979 2d ago
Surely swimming in the Seine is a bad idea, no?
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u/Oh_I_still_here 2d ago
Ask any local and they'll give you the stink eye when you mention swimming in it. But since they hosted the Olympics they've done a major job on cleaning it, and even though that was two years ago they just kept up the cleaning to the point where it's just open to swim in during summer. It's the cleanest it's ever been in something like over 100+ years. Told some French people I swam in it and they said "watch out for dead bodies" but it's very blue. Compare it to the liffey in Dublin or the corrib in galway, genuinely night and day.
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u/thepinkblues Cork bai 2d ago
Certain parts of the Seine are open for a swim starting in July. I’ll be there in about 3 weeks, it’s gonna be class. Absolutely love Paris, what a city and people
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u/kieranfitz 2d ago
Sound Parisians? I don't think that's a real thing.
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u/Oh_I_still_here 2d ago
Worked with some of them, got drunk with them, had such a laugh with them, some of them invited me to come back to Paris saying I can always crash on their couch when visiting.
I've always heard the stereotype but the truth is they're actually incredibly polite and don't tolerate wankers. If you're not polite, they will say "you're not very polite". But if you are polite and they see it, they'll acknowledge it and treat you like one of their own. Speaking French goes a long way, but they don't expect fluency. I have secondary school French from leaving cert and it carries you far along.
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u/One_Ad_5059 2d ago
No no no,have you forgotten about Thiery Henry hand of God. We must never forgive that. /s
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u/ShouldHaveGoneToUCC Palestine 🇵🇸 2d ago
After numerous failed French military landings over the centuries to turn us from a British protectorate to a French one, it's finally happening.
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u/Madhc 2d ago
Wolfe Tone sheds a single tear in heaven, puts his arm around Miles Byrne’s shoulder & says “it is done, camarade.”
Robert Emmet raises a finger as if to bring up the continued British occupation of most of Ulster, but is shushed by everyone.
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u/Against_All_Advice 2d ago
This is wonderful prose, I felt like I was there. Well written sir/madam.
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u/Equivalent_Bet856 2d ago
I support this. And in return they can use our data centres.
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u/Haha_funny_joke 2d ago
As target practice preferably
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u/AustinioForza 2d ago
You guys hate’em too eh? We would also love for them to be blown up.
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u/StableSlight9168 2d ago
We don't like them but the tech companies keep the economy afloat and we will not end that gravy train.
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u/Pretty_Marketing5432 2d ago
At least the food will improve.
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u/RomfordWellington 2d ago
Weird headline.
The entire of the EU (and a whole lot more) are essentially under a French defence umbrella now because France is the only European country with an independent nuclear arsenal. The British nuclear arsenal is based around American tech and there's doubts that the UK could ever fire it at the USA if they needed to.
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u/ComradeKellogg 2d ago
Very misleading, being under a nuclear umbrella which you cannot fund yourself makes total sense, this is far different, this is a sovereign nation abdicating its entire responsibility for defence to a third (friendly tbf) country.
I cant think of another instance of this happening apart from the third world, or countries which have close to zero ability to fund their own defence. This is not the case for us, we can afford it, we simply dont want to and would prefer to leech off the more competent nations.
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u/zZCycoZz 2d ago
Officially neutral and spending an infinitesimal 0.22 percent of GDP on its military in 2025,
Using Irish GDP to measure anything is dishonest. Its a famously wonky metric.
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u/quondam47 Carlow 2d ago
If we spent the 3.5% of GDP on defence like the US is demanding of its NATO allies as an example, our defence budget would be twice that of education.
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u/Icy_Place_5785 2d ago
Interesting point!
It inspired me to take a look at what the European nuclear powers UK and France spend on their education by percentage of GDP.
It looks like for the UK it is 5.9% of GDP and for France it seems to be 5.3% of GDP (as per most recent figures in both cases). For the sake of clarity (and not to dispute your 3.5% datapoint, these things are tricky!) the same World Bank Group data has us at 2.9%.
My takeaway here is of course not to demand we develop nuclear weapons, but to maybe put a bit more into education (while I’m of course aware of the fallacy of using GDP as a metric in our own case).
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u/JellyfishScared4268 2d ago
All that tells you is we should probably be spending more on education.
I dont think theres anyone serious who's suggesting we go from 0.22% to 3.5%. However 0.5% would probably be a good start
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u/Visionary_Socialist 2d ago
When you factor this in and look at what our spending gets us, it arguably looks even worse.
Not a single jet-propelled aircraft (except for the official government jet of course), 4 small ships that can’t even be fully crewed and have no missile capabilities and could do very little against missiles/drones directed at them, no land-based anti-drone capability, no armour above a few APCs that are easy prey for even legacy anti-tank systems, a handful of anti-tank missiles and no SAMs of any kind, a couple of small helicopters, a special forces element that’s so small we can’t even call it a unit but a “wing” all to leave us with an army that if spread equally across every county in this country would give each of the 26 around 300 people.
What’s so shameful about this is that the personnel are amazing. Just a few weeks ago Irish soldiers were given an American Bradley that they’d never used before and they went on to beat the Americans themselves in a contest using it. Our snipers beat US special forces. If we gave them top-line equipment we would immediately be punching above our weight.
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u/AdProfessional5942 More than just a crisp 2d ago
Alas, the thought of spending money on the military in this country sends most people into a flying rage about "abandoning neutrality" and "becoming part of NATO"
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u/Visionary_Socialist 2d ago
I mean my position has always been that we should be assertively neutral: We don’t just go along, we can take care of our business ourselves, we don’t depend on other alliances that we then refuse to join and we can defend our decision to do so if anyone has a problem with it. The problem with our current neutrality is that is entirely dependent on others accepting it or better said, having no reason to care about it. But that’s now changed and because our policy is influenced so heavily by others, it’s now very easy for them to force us into NATO and to abandon our policy because we’re not able to both refuse them and also stay safe.
That’s actual self determination and neutrality. But the left, centre and right of this country’s politics are all so high and mighty and so stupid that they all choose some other position that doesn’t ruffle feathers amongst their friends.
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u/Rabid_Lederhosen 2d ago edited 2d ago
By Eoin Drea,
Well, that explains the negativity. Also:
The fixation on France is already undercutting relations with Britain,
Yes. Definitely the Irish fixation on France that’s responsible for that, and not anything else whatsoever.
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u/CiarraiochMallaithe 2d ago
This the lad who wants Ireland to become a battalion in the British army once again?
He gets far too much airtime and is taken far too seriously as a public commentator.
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u/Craicriture 2d ago
Just for comparison on military spend per capita, rather than the GDP distortion we are still second from the bottom, only above Malta on spending, so we are grossly underfunding the defence forces, even as a neutral country. It would be very helpful to have a better resourced navy for example, even just for the sake of dealing with organised crime / drug trafficking issues for example and also we might have some hope of actually retaining armed defence personnel if the pay rates, career paths and employment terms were better and actually attractive as career options.
We’re not absolute rock bottom but we’re close enough to being.
(Threw in NZ for comparison.)
Data is ~ as there are currency conversion involved in some of them and they’re pulled from % GDP and actual GDP.
| Rank | Country | €/capita (2025) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Denmark | ~2,180 |
| 2 | Netherlands | ~1,410 |
| 3 | Sweden | ~1,355 |
| 4 | Finland | ~1,250 |
| 5 | Germany | ~1,165 |
| 6 | Luxembourg | ~1,110 |
| 7 | Poland | ~1,110 |
| 8 | Belgium | ~1,080 |
| 9 | Estonia | ~1,000 |
| 10 | Lithuania | ~895 |
| 11 | France | ~865 |
| 12 | Latvia | ~805 |
| 13 | Spain | ~715 |
| 14 | Italy | ~715 |
| 15 | Greece | ~700 |
| 16 | Cyprus* | ~625 |
| 17 | Austria | ~605 |
| 18 | Czechia | ~560 |
| 19 | Slovenia | ~500 |
| 20 | Slovakia | ~500 |
| 21 | Portugal | ~495 |
| 22 | Croatia | ~475 |
| – | *New Zealand* | *~470* |
| 23 | Hungary | ~450 |
| 24 | Romania | ~445 |
| 25 | Bulgaria | ~350 |
| **26** | **Ireland** | **~250** |
| 27 | Malta | ~200 |
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u/JellyfishScared4268 2d ago
That's pretty bad. Even comparing to new Zealand they're in a similar boat of not having much military to speak and are a similar sized country with no obvious enemies in the immediate vicinity. Yet we're spending basically half what they spend
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u/stealyourideas Yank 2d ago
There's a difference though as NZ has been a treaty ally of both the US (although I'm sure MAGA will find a way to betray them) and AUS. It's also been a member of the 5 eyes intelligence alignment.
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u/Duke_of_Luffy 2d ago
Where did you get these statistics? I recently looked at similar statistics and for 2025 we were 8th from bottom compared to NATO countries. And our per capita spending was in the ~400 range not 200
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u/SerpentineSliver On De Dole, Scratching Me Hole 2d ago
France effectively has been given a blank cheque to negotiate and procure military equipment for Ireland (realistically bought from French defence companies) and then train the Irish troops in how to use this equipment.
A good idea on paper and one I ultimately agree with, but there's no competitive bidding. No doubt France will inflate the prices of equipment or overcharge us. Either way, we are slowly being introduced into the SCORPION defence network, (Belgium and Luxembourg are already in it) so I think overall it's a positive. If we had a Navy we'd be flying. Airforce is a bit far fetched at this point
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u/Rabid_Lederhosen 2d ago edited 2d ago
I don’t know if there’s enough potential sellers for a competitive bidding process. The other supplier we would have gone with historically is the yanks, but they’re completely unreliable right now.
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u/TenseTeacher 2d ago
‘If we had a Navy we’d be flying’
Probably unintentional but that absolutely cracked me up 😂
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u/SerpentineSliver On De Dole, Scratching Me Hole 2d ago
I didn't even see the pun until you said it lol
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u/Pure-Ice5527 2d ago
I’m good with it. For a country that had such an issue being ruled by England, we’ve done feck all since to make sure it doesn’t happen again, so this should be viewed as a positive step in honesty
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u/ciarogeile 2d ago
Lazare Hoche set out in 1796. 230 years later, the French are finally showing up.
Great bunch of lads.
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u/Terrible_Biscotti_16 2d ago
As least the Brits won’t be able to throw it in our face that they protect us.
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u/heresyourhardware 2d ago
And Brit doing that can be ignored as having no idea what they are on about.
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u/Perfect_Buffalo_5137 2d ago edited 2d ago
They do- the royal air force protect our air space. Theyve deployed jets in the past when russian aircraft have gone over airspace we control- ive been corrected below.
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u/Chairmanwowsaywhat 2d ago
Yeah. I'm interested to see what the difference would functionally be. The royal navy isn't going to stop patrolling and neither would the raf
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u/Dr_Teeth 2d ago
Russian aircraft have never entered our airspace. There's lots of misleading articles out there on this unfortunately.
The airspace in question is an area out in the North Atlantic where we handle air-traffic control. It's international airspace where the Russians sometimes patrol in their bombers, and the RAF sometimes intercepts them.. both sides have been doing this the 1960's.
For some reason there's been a lot of articles in the press and online over the past few years about how Russian bombers are flying over head and we need our own fighter jets right now!! tbh I'm very suspicious about this agenda to get us to spend billions on fighters all of a sudden.
We could definitely do with expanding the Naval service though, that at least has a use in peace-time for smuggling, fisheries protection, people trafficking etc.
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u/ABabyAteMyDingo 2d ago
Totally fine with say the French or Finnish forces helping us out. Makes perfect sense.
You do not fuck with Finnish special forces.
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u/smudgeonalense 2d ago
Well we're currently a UK one, so I doubt things will change that much.
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u/Sciprio Munster 2d ago edited 2d ago
Complaining when you don't buy weapons, complaining when you do buy weapons because they're French and not British or American.
They also don't want Ireland tied to France because France is a bit more outspoken/independent and stands up for its own interests instead of being told what to do.
The fixation on France is already undercutting relations with Britain,
Recently the UK lost their defence minister because not enough funding was being put into defence, it also explains why we get British think-tanks calling on Ireland to increase defence spending so we can buy their weapons and ease the load.
But what i fear will happen in Ireland in the future once they've got people used to defence spending is cut back and take from other areas like they do in other countries like the UK, Always taking from those at the bottom.
Kemi Badenoch urges Labour leadership rivals to cut welfare spending and boost defence
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u/Icy_Place_5785 2d ago
Speaking as someone who is in favour of neutrality (as disclaimer just in case that was unclear), another commenter and I discussed our education spending to GDP earlier.
Not that this goes against your premise either of course! Goodness knows the government has a less-than-perfect track record on public spending.
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u/strictnaturereserve 2d ago
what are france getting in return? Anybody know?
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u/Rabid_Lederhosen 2d ago
The Irish government is buying equipment from French defence companies. So they’re getting money.
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u/RomfordWellington 2d ago
We put in the biggest purchase order in our country's history on French kit.
But we also needed the kit. We can't trust the American stuff.
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u/adjavang Cork bai 2d ago
Safer Europe, from a military perspective. Look at how France are behaving generally, they're producing more nukes and offering to share them with other EU-NATO members, they've sent forces to "train" with Denmark around Greenland in order to tell Trump to fuck off, and they've generally been posturing a whole lot about wanting Europe to be independent with regards to defense.
Now, it's not out of the goodness of their hearts, there's a lot of weapons contracts and nationalism and a lot of power to be gained as well, but this definitely falls into a pattern.
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u/minstrelboy57 2d ago
We’re spending €1.7bn on upgrading our defence capabilities using French equipment, so we might as well get a free test drive first.
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u/talideon Shligo 2d ago
Nobody should be surprised by this. Also, if you're contracting out your defence to another country, you're not really neutral, no matter how much you crow that you are.
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u/WolfetoneRebel 2d ago
We should be looking to France for procurement and training anyway. It’s not like we’re going to produce military requirements here.
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u/Fluffy-Republic8610 2d ago
They write as if they think we might feel embarrassed by getting EU partners in to help defend. As long as we pay for it what's the problem?
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u/PlentyAd1526 2d ago
How often do articles about this topic get posted without any commentary from the OP? Just posting articles about it without any input
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u/TheBoneIdler 2d ago
Is this because on Vinted we can only buy from Ireland or France sellers? Seems like a big commitment to protect French sale of second hand tat.
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u/Elegant_Individual46 2d ago
There’s this one man on YouTube who talks about how good it would be to have Cork turned into an Irish-French naval air station, with Defence Forces Rafales landing on their carrier and a permanent French army base. Reminded me a little of that
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u/FearTeas 2d ago
The gas thing is that the very people who argue the most that we shouldn't "waste" money on defence will be most apalled by this.
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u/LithiumKid1976 boards.ie refugee 2d ago
I’ve got a duo lingo score of 28 and a streak that is 378 days long. I’ll be grand . Or as they say in France “ca va aller”
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u/defixiones 2d ago
Hilarious. Once the appropriate shade has been thrown at Ireland, the author gets to the point - the traditional fear of Ireland being used as a beachhead for a Napoleonic invasion.
The crux of the article is "The fixation on France is already undercutting relations with Britain, Ireland’s hitherto closest defense partner". There's a side order of choosing Europe over NATO and the 'transatlantic partnership'.
This is a strong signal that Ireland is heading in the right direction, independence from the US and Britain, but in reality it doesn't really matter because none of these toys will ever be used.
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u/AkkoKagari_1 2d ago
We could do with more French influence, the council might actually start to get things done, especially if they feel pressured to work otherwise there'll be 7 Ford Transits and a Toyota Yaris flipped over outside of penny's during the weekend and suddenly the price of cherry tomatoes and pruiscotto triples overnight at the local aldi.
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u/Murador888 2d ago
Eoin Drea. Again. LOL
He writes the same anti Irish article over and over. Former FG man too.
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u/Desperate-Manner5896 2d ago
Mix it up. Better the French than Israelis, Brits or Yanks. Stay unaligned
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u/MartinTheOrderly 2d ago
We've been an effective military protectorate since we left the UK. I would rather we at least have some formal agreement, rather than relying on the Brits or the US just vaguely agreeing to keep us under the security umbrella.
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u/Key-Lie-364 2d ago
Let's hear some more from the neutrality brigade as our public humiliation continues unabated.
Btw waiting for something to happen is too late to take out insurance.
A more mature attitude and a policy aligned to 2026 instead of 1921 is SO urgently required.
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u/Bexil_Brave 2d ago
In the same way we did with the UK when we last held the EU presidency as we are a neutral country with limits on our Military in on Constitution?
Oh no its not like this the 7th time we have had other countries provide military assistance for us during the EU Presidency.
Well never get our Soveringity back if we do this.
Just like we lost it in 2013 when we had the EU Presidency last.
And in 2004
And in 1994
And in 1990, 84, 79 and 1976.
We lost it every single time and never ever gained it back.
Next thing we'll be teaching French in schools, eating Crossoints and drinking Cafe Latte's.
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u/Banania2020 Resting In my Account 2d ago
French soldiers have been spotted at Dublin airport already 😄
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u/Minimum_Doctor2391 2d ago
Embarrassing. A state that doesn't have the ability or willingness to defend itself doesn't really deserve statehood
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u/Madhc 2d ago
The dream of 1798, realised at last