A well attended public Meeting took place in Kilcullen Town Hall and Heritage Centre on Thursday
29, May entitled The Neutrality Roadshow. Labour Party Councillor Ann Breen, Mick Wallace (former
MEP) and the Sinn Fein organiser and former Kildare Councillor Joanne Pender were in attendance.
The speakers at the meeting were academic Niamh Ní Bhriain and Fionn Wallace, the event was
chaired by local Kildare Palestine Solidarity Campaign activist Patricia Foley.
Ní Bhriain outlined the background to the provision of the Triple Lock arrangement to safeguard
Irish neutrality during the 2002 Nice and 2009 Lisbon Treaty referendums. She said that abandoning
the arrangement at a time when Europe is becoming more militaristic would bring Ireland in an
increasingly dangerous direction.
Fionn Wallace spoke of a ‘relentless attack’ on Ireland’s Triple Lock and a campaign by the arms
industry lobbying in Ireland at a time when spending on fighter jets, anti-tank missiles, and other
military equipment is being proposed.
Following the contributions of each of the speakers, there was a Q&A session with a lot of valid
points on preserving Irish Neutrality.
