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FOR YEARS NOW the question of what Irish neutrality meant has hung over Ireland.
Academics and politicians alike have disagreed on its legality and validity, as well as Irish alliances which impact the concept of our neutrality.
There have been countless attempts to dissolve and amend it throughout the years but the will of the people, who have historically always been pro-neutrality, has managed to outweigh the money-hungry politicians who bend to the will of the European Union any chance they get.
Many people have questioned the Irish role in NATO’s Partnership for Peace, the use of Shannon Airport by the United States, the role Ireland played in World War II, our membership of the European Union and what all of these mean when it comes to the standard universal definition of neutrality.
Although we may not fit into the same category as countries like Switzerland when thinking about our position we must view neutrality as a spectrum and not as ‘one size fits all’.
There are some major factors that prove the authenticity of and Irish commitment to neutrality. As it stands, Ireland must get Government approval, Dáil approval and UN approval before the Defence Forces are deployed overseas.
There is also Article 29.9 of the Irish Constitution:
The State shall not adopt a decision taken by the European Council to establish a common defence pursuant to Article 42 of the Treaty on European Union where that common defence would include the State.
However it is now clear that both of these protections to our neutrality are under threat.
After we signed up to Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) in December of last year, Fine Gael MEP Brian Hayes called for the ‘redefinition of neutrality’, as well as ‘amending Ireland’s triple lock system’.
Although both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil deny that PESCO affects Irish neutrality, this is not the case. What is happening is far more sinister – that is, the redefining of what the European Union was set up to be.
Military Spending Skyrockets
The road from a ‘Peace Project’ to a ‘European Defence Union’ has begun.
With programmes such as the European Defence Industrial Development Programme (€500 million), Military Mobility (€6.5 billion) the European Defence Fund (€13 billion) and Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) all coming into existence in just the last year. Who knows what the next year may hold?
The EU security and defence budget is set to increase 22-fold in 2021 to €28 billion.
This is not including border control with a budget of €21 billion for an army of 10,000 border guards or the many other billions interwoven into every aspect of the budget that will aid in the development of the defence industry in Europe.
This defence industry was already worth more than €97 billion in 2014, and employs over 500,000 people directly and 1.2 million indirectly. It is an untapped goldmine in the eyes of Commission President Jean Claude Juncker and many other EU officials.
France and Germany have some of the biggest arms-making companies in the world and the EU arms exports amount to over 27% of the world’s total, just second after the United States who export 34%.
When you question why they are militarising the European Union you must understand that this it is not to protect or defend you. It is about money and billions of it.
This was not the only lie they told when pitching PESCO and this European Defence Union to the member states.
It was also sold as a cost-saving mechanism because apparently this lack of cooperation costs the EU €25 billion annually. However, it will cost smaller countries like Ireland much more and as our Defence Forces continue to be underpaid, underappreciated and ignored by Defence Minister Leo Varadkar.
We will instead line the pockets of the European defence industry and invest in equipment we are ordered to buy by our European overlords instead of investing in our own people.
A Real European Army
With all that has happened over the last number of years with the militarisation of the European Union and the major Irish political parties continuing to support the dissolution of our neutrality, the question needs to be asked: ‘Are we heading towards an EU army?’
Last week concerned political representatives, neutrality activists and academics held a public meeting in Galway to discuss what the future holds for Ireland in this era of European militarisation.
That meeting examined a range of issues including how the massive increases in military spending will affect spending in other areas including agriculture.
It was timely too, as the French president Emmanuel Macron used the armistice centenary commemorations to call for the formation of a “real” European army.
Luke Ming Flanagan is MEP for Midlands-North West
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If only there was some other way they could view the games…….
Wink wink nudge nudge :D
How do you block overspill of Saorview into NI?
They don’t have saorview in the north its freeview and it works off a different signal and it’s very easy to block a signal on digital boxes, for instance Espn block the Europa cup game in the republic because 3e have the rights
Colm they have overspill which means saor view reaches a lot of houses in the North
Not unless you have a saorview box because the signal works at a much different frequency than freeview, and like I said its possible to block a signal on a digital reciver like Espn and like E4 does on a regular basis in the repbulic
Brian, Colm is 100% right. People in the Southern border counties are using Freeview boxes, ergo………..
…”From the four proud provinces of Ireland”…
Oh, wait…
Maybe it will mean the end of that feckin’ dirge of a song!
Do we still have to play ‘Ireland’s Call’ then?!!
Hope not.
Would you rather Ireland had two teams the way they do for soccer? We would not have Rory Best and Gilroy then. I’d rather keep them and keep Ireland’s call for the moment
Can we ship that off to Sky too? Worst song ever!
Would prefer to sing the chitty chitty bang bang song before rugger matches than that Ireland’s Call rubbish
Can we at least have a good song to get the crowd riled up before a game? Imagine All Ireland Rugby supporters belting out “Teenage Kicks”? Now that’s a song I could get behind!
Any chance RTE could send that pain in the hole called Ryle Nugent to Sky so we don’t have to hear him.
Unfortunately he’s the boss when it comes to sport
Tommy Bowwweeeee
Glory Glory Munsterrrrrrrrrrrr
Haha good auld Ryle! #cocksucker
What a compete an utter nincompoop Ryle nugent is, he should stick to being sports director or whatever job title rte gave him and give commentating a miss because he is the worst commentator in the world and coming a close second is that lad on newstalk. Crap to say the least.
Laptop… Broadband… Stream… Sorted.
Elrat, firstly there are six counties in the North, not four. :)
Secondly, there are nine counties to make the province of Ulster. Nine out of thirty two makes it very nearly a third, I think that is where the percentage was taken from.
Regardless, as an avid Irish rugby fan I am gutted about this move. It is far too expensive to pay for Sky Sports these days. It is such a shame that I’ll be denied the chance to watch my national team (and a true united team, Lord knows what football does do both parts of this island so rugby in my opinion is an united sport here) and the sport I love simply because of a deal that cuts off the North.
So yes, I feel rather disappointed and let down by the IRFU here. They’re happy enough to take our money when we travel down to Dublin/Cork/Limerick but yet can’t let us continue to watch internationals on TV. don’t get me wrong, I understand you have to pay for things in order to finance the team etc but this is a slightly bitter pill to swallow.
And for the record, having watched a good number of rugby matches in Belfast I can safely say that no, 50% of us do not cheer on GB.
Oh well. Here’s hoping that we all can still continue to watch and enjoy the Six Nations! Looking forward to the weekend and let’s hope the match (and our fellas in green!) is a good one. :)
There should be a ban on long winded comments. If you can’t get your message across in 22 words or less you should
Where did I say there were 4 counties in NI – I said 4 provinces in Ireland – did they not teach you to read correctly in school ?
i notice Channel 4 have been doing the same over the past couple of months , where some films and programmes even on the sky box are not available in the ROI
That been going on a while, however if you tune C4 in on extra channels you can watch everything (on Sky that is)
Ryle nugent is good. Better than george hamilton.
George Hamilton is certainly more eloquent and verbose than Ryle.
Heaslip has….Rory Best has….O’Gara has…..O’Driscoll has…..now D’arcy has. Has what Ryle? Pleurisy? Cat Aids ? The ball?
TOMMY BOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWE!!!!
So that is what the digital switchover was really about.
In fairness they have been getting it for free, whereas we have to pay rte 160 euros for the privilege.
What? We get the UK channels for free…
No we don’t Ian. We pay Sky or UPC for them.
The U.k. Channels are free if you have a free view bo
In Donegal, before the switch over and even now we get bbc1 and 2, channel 4 and utv on the ordinary aerial. Couldn’t get tv3 at all. We get about 18 channels all together now on saor view.
Would that be for a tv licence?
Have to pay nearly £150 for BBC here.
At least u get quality programmes . All we get is fair city , the saturday nigjt show and other durge of that kind
Crazy regulations, just pretend it is blocked. Only some suit executive will care and he’ll be in the nice box at the game with a prawn sambo.
Ryle nugent the worst commentator ever
have to mentally prepare myself for brian moore now
Is Moore not the BBC commentator? No BBC coverage, no Brian Moore, no loss there, although it is a shame that the north are losing out on seeing these games unless they have Sky.
Down with this sort of thing!
Stuart Barnes can nearly be as bad to listen to.
1/3? I don’t agree the Northern Ireland counties can’t see the games onRTE but it does give us good reason to not elect SF down to lack of basic maths!
I’d say 1/3 would be a good educated guess.
The population of Ireland is about 6.4 million, with 1.8 in the 6 counties. 1/3 makes sense to me
Sorry for repeating myself there, not intentional at all, on the app!! Yes from a rugby perspective Ireland’s fan base is most definitely not 33% based in the counties of N I . I love the fact it’s an all Ireland team, just don’t like the sport being hi jacked by sudo politicians is all!!
Funny that your comments previously don’t seem to support this comment… Admit it… you are a confused individual ;) Possibly psycho???
Where is Rory Conway and Jason Naughton when we need them :D
FFG/Labour/FF … slowly but surely eroding the Irishness of Ireland since 1922 ….
Our country is being sold put from under our feet. They want us to feel less Irish every day.
You have to politicize everything, don’t you? Typical Sinn Fein propaganda.
Kevin, I for one am old enough to remember, that went the Irish Governments of the day were negotiating all these rights to watch home games for Croke Park and Landsdowne road (when they were fully under the auspices of the Irish Government), The Irish people were told that the rights to these games would never leave the controlf of the Irish people and their Government…
Can I ask how old you are… or when you turned against he people of Ireland
The Television rights are ours. Dont sell them out!
Television rights and turning against the people of Ireland? You are absolutely nuts. Hate to break it to you Cal but most people on this island simply don’t agree with you. You clearly have some sort of fanatical hatred of anyone who doesn’t fit your qualifications of “real” Irish or who differs with your bigoted ideology.
Yep Kevin, got the same of you (and your super alter-ego) on the last thread ….
This was my response on that thread … to a question about by
” last comment to the people who dont know what they are talking about … my sister has a British passport … some Unionists have Irish passports …
I know you are obviously not from the North, and think in very straight lines …. I am from the North …. i respect all the people there. All of them.
Try and find one comment i have made on the Journal, any comment i have ever made, that suggests otherwise.
The war is over … peace prevails, and nothing you or anyone else says, will change my view, or the view of all right minded people. A passport in the North, does not mean what you think it means.”
Kevin … i grew up in the North, moved down just south of the border when i was young ….
All that time, i watched all the Irish games on TV without being charged for the privilege…
Now… you and your Ilk want to make people like me, pay for the things i took for granted growing up, and you dare and call me …. “FANATICAL” … next thing you will support charging me for things like water, my home, and for simply being alive… right? Argue with me if i am wrong.
Kevin,
I dare for Journal.ie or any other media source to run a poll ….
Should the Irish Government refuse to allow the people in the North of the Island of Ireland watch RTE between certain times, just because a media organisation challenges them?
This is NOT a political debate… its about whats doing right for the people on this Island. For the last 20 years, i have wtached governments, year on year, swear away the rights of people of this Island, and we have had people like you Kevin/FF/FFG/Labour, keep attacking people like me for voicing our concerns. I will not tolerate it. I am from the North. I am from Northern Ireland. I do not want RTE to stop broadcasting to my family… why do you find that so hard to understand? Are you a terrorist?
“Kevin … i grew up in the North, moved down just south of the border when i was young ….
All that time, i watched all the Irish games on TV without being charged for the privilege…
Now… you and your Ilk want to make people like me, pay for the things i took for granted growing up, and you dare and call me …. “FANATICAL” … next thing you will support charging me for things like water, my home, and for simply being alive… right? Argue with me if i am wrong.”
@What on earth are you talking about? You have the typical victim mentality.
“This is NOT a political debate… its about whats doing right for the people on this Island. For the last 20 years, i have wtached governments, year on year, swear away the rights of people of this Island, and we have had people like you Kevin/FF/FFG/Labour, keep attacking people like me for voicing our concerns. I will not tolerate it. I am from the North. I am from Northern Ireland. I do not want RTE to stop broadcasting to my family… why do you find that so hard to understand? Are you a terrorist?”
@This is not “political”…..Uh if it’s not political why mention “FF/FG/Labour” then? It clearly is.
Ha! Poor old Cal….that Grand Canyon Chip just keeps getting bigger…..Of course youre “Irish” Cal, you’re more “Irish” than the Cliffs of Moher, more “Irish” than Guinness and Darby O’Gill combined….be the hokey…feel better
A United Ireland is the only solution. Get on to Ken McGuinness.
Murdock is at it again. I bet he’s behind this.
1/3? I don’t agree the Northern Ireland counties can’t see the games onRTE but it does give us good reason to not elect SF down to a lack of basic maths!
Your repeating yourself, this is about sport not politics. Leave I bleedin ou.
When a nationalised company, ( especially our national media outlet), acknowledges the fact we are two nations, living on the same island, and the “foreign” nation on the island is not allowed watch one of the few national teams that feature players from both sides of the border; It is by definition, political.
Do northerners pay their license to RTE? If not the why should I pay for them to watch games especially when none of their players are any good?
Tommy bowe?? Craig Gilroy? Rory Best? Stephen Ferris??
Idiot.
Tommy bowe is from monaghan……idiot!!
In confused by the article. Surely it’s the RFU award the rights for coverage in the UK and NI not IRFU? That’s why rte signal will be blocked as sky insist on exclusive rights.
That would make a lot more sense!
Why would the RFU have anything to do with Ireland, Scotland or Wales? Do you understand how rugby works?
Rfu sign a contract for the United Kingdom dude, never just for England, which includes ni… Not to do with rugby, just to do with broadcasting rights…
Dave, I’m fully aware of that, but the OP seems to think that the RFU not the IRFU sell the rights to Ireland games in NI. The don’t, the IRFU do.
Yeah… I know but the article doesn’t make sense, for the irfu to sign a contract with sky, when rte have the internationals covered and that only recently, seems like the article is wrong in some aspect…
The Ireland games are of national significance so rte do not have to purchase them they are obliged to cover them. If an outside broadcaster eg sky wants to cover them in another country they pay the irfu. I think that’s how it works. Wasn’t there a big deal made about heineken cup games being sold to sky also? Some politician vowing to get them shown by the national broadcaster?
Rfu only do the English games. Wales and Scotland have their own rugby unions. They each sell their home games separately. It just happens that sky have the money to buy up all of them. Rte has no rights to the games unless they pay for them. An agreement was reached about 5 years ago that rte would not have to compete against any pay per view company for any national sports. They only have to out bid tv3 and tg4. However for international coverage it’s the highest bidder. Unfortunately even though the rugby team is 32 county legally the north is a separate country.
Diarmuid in Ireland it’s the IRFU. Why would the English rugby union have a say in what happens in Ireland
Give a shout at spectrumav.ie and we’ll get a box installed which will bypass all this blocking. Shoulder to shoulder……………
Is this not just the IRFU selling to the highest bidder? It’s not RTEs fault, we have different digital boxes here to the north and the sat service will work, I don’t know if I agree with the licence fee being used to bid for sports rights anyway. I remember when setanta were outbid for the Heineken cup by RTE, setanta showed all the games RTE only showed a few and setanta could not match the RTE bid, bit unfair IMO.
Fair play to Gay Byrne …. Now we know why that self serving git offered up so much to ‘help convert the old foggies’ over to saor view … RTE can now charge rights to Irish people in the North to watch RTE …. Gaybo, FF, FFG/Labour managed to con the Irish old-fogies and the rest of us into believing that the switch over was for our benefit… instead, they wanted to charge the Irish people in the North, who are already paying TV licenses and subscription to UK services, an “IRISH PREMIUM” to watch the same service that they have watched for decades… but with no say on the content.. This is not about one game … its about these robbing gits taking everything from everyone… to pay and sustain their own salaries.
Do you not think it more likely that Sky had a clause about exclusive UK coverage from the IRFU and are now also demanding that be honoured?
Sport which is the enjoyment of the people is being turned into yet another commodity. “Aviva” stadium says it all. We should be up in arms but we are too stupid to see what’s going on.
I misread the original article once I reread I see its for the autumn internationals only
Don’t forget RTE supporting Irish sport by showing champions league and premiership highlights ;)
Rte are an awful shower. The same with saorsat. They only broadcast it in the republic. I would be lost without the uk s freesat. The rugby is watched by the whole of Ireland
RTE is distributed through VIRGIN MEDIA, SKY and FREEVIEW. These signals will have to be blocked similarly to what happens on UPC with some of the ITV channels, Channel 4 and ESPN in case the rights are UK only. Anyone with a FREEVIEW HD receiver or -ready television who lives in an overspill zone for a SAORVIEW transmitter (i.e. generally the same area that would have received RTE before the switchover, SAORVIEW itself estimates that 65% of the population in Northern Ireland can TECHNICALLY receive its signal- which is perfectly possible with the above equipment after a simple returne)) can just continue to watch as they would have before.
In reality, the only people affected by this are those who would have previously relied on the BBC to watch the games and now have to shell out extra for SKY.
Of course, THE JOURNAL could have also done some research and contact SKY to see how many people in Northern Ireland subscribe to SKY SPORTS through either SKY or Virgin Media, to add some balance.
1/3 of the teams fan base – where does she get that from? 4 provinces in Ireland – probably 50% of NI would be shouting for team GB !! Than fan base is getting smaller & smaller.
God be with the days when we had analogue and the airwaves was free, analogue had no respect for borders.
Ah yes, that well known GB rugby team…….
Saorsat
Give us a shout at spectrumav dot ie and we’ll bypass all this blocking. Shoulder to shoulder…………
Bad move rte
Bad move IRFU.
Setanta Sports got gaa, Sky got FAI and Heineken Cup.
Lots of people popping over the border to watch the game then
HOW many UK channels can be watched in the south of Ireland on the SAORVIEW system,
free from a UK Licence fee ,? will freeview UK NOW BLOCK ALL SIGNALS to the ROI.?
will the south not be able to watch a game if it is played in the North ?
Load of Bo&%ix!!
As an irishman living in Europe the only way i get to see the six nations or International Rugby in English is on the BBC.. now that they have lost it means I’ll have to watch it on french or Italian TV.. which BTW is Free in Europe…
Firstrow.eu
If you have a sky box with no subscription then you don’t receive RTE, TV3 TG4 etc.. However you do receive programmes broadcast by the British broadcasting corporation. So in essence the Brits are giving us their channels for free. However, British or Irish users do not receive any Irish channels for free, that is if you are using a sky box and have cancelled your subscription. Instead they force us to buy a new Saorview box? Absolute rip off!
Rte don’t have a say in the matter… Sky would sue the pants off them if they didn’t black it out.the Irfu sell there own autumn internationals, the bbc will still have the 6nations
Do they pay a licence fee in the north?
have your say