Rundale

In March, the government brought legislation to Cabinet to dismantle the Triple Lock, a mechanism that regulates the deployment of Irish Defence Forces overseas. The ‘Triple Lock’ is used to describe the requirement of UN approval, a decision by the Government, and a vote in the Dáil to approve the overseas deployment of Defence Forces personnel. Published as the General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025 in May, the government’s proposals are wending their way through pre-legislative scrutiny and are expected to be brought to the Oireachtas for approval by the end of the year. Importantly, the bill would remove the requirement for UN approval and would increase the number of troops that can be deployed without a Dáil vote from 12 to 50.

Following on from the Neutrality Roadshow, which we promoted in May, this month’s Rundale is a themed issue on Irish neutrality and the Triple Lock. This is our first themed or ‘special’ issue, and we’re excited to be sharing work from Rundale members and Neutrality Roadshow contributors in it.

Our own Patrick Bresnihan and Rory Rowan describe the Neutrality Roadshow as a form of popular education and reflect on the popular rejection of imperialism, militarism and war they found across the island. 

In The Struggle for Active Neutrality, the Triple Lock, and Peace, Karen Devine outlines the Triple Lock’s key role in active positive neutrality, which decades of opinion polling has shown as consistently and widely supported by the Irish public. The Triple Lock prevents Ireland’s participation in EU and NATO military operations and conflicts, and Karen outlines how its erosion is part of the Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael Government’s determination to march Ireland into a militarised European Union.

Niamh Ní Bhriain, Coordinator for The Transnational Institute’s War and Pacification Programme, contextualises the government’s legislation within the longer term history of Irish neutrality, and its misalignment with an increasingly ‘NATO-ised’ European Union. Niamh highlights the role of on-going corporate lobbying in the government’s abandonment of neutrality, against the wishes of the Irish people, and looks ahead toward the likely outcomes of allowing the government to embed itself in the imperialist architecture that wages war and genocide for imperialist gain.

In The Triple Lock and the Case of Ireland in Mali, Fionn Wallace outlines the major issues with European Union overseas intervention in Mali and the Sahel, where the Irish Defence Forces were deployed within the terms of the Triple Lock to an EU training mission with a UN mandate in 2013. In doing so, Wallace condemns our involvement in neo-colonial, imperialist, and destabilising EU interventions overseas, and calls for the Triple Lock to be enhanced through renewed, collective, and on-going organising to support neutrality and our anti-colonial struggle.

You can find out more about the Triple Lock and Irish neutrality (and meet some of our contributors) at The Neutrality Roadshow event in Clarke’s City Arms on Wednesday 6^th August at 7pm. No need to RSVP or register – just turn up on the evening to discuss the importance of preserving Irish neutrality in the face of global instability and war. 

We hope that you enjoy this first themed issue. If you have an idea for future themes that you’d like us to explore, or would like to submit to Rundale, please check out our submission guidelines or get in touch by emailing rundale.project@gmail.com