Is it time to join Nato

I must say the use of the phrase "Westplaining" to describe the supine attitude to Russia from some is entirely amusing.

We are Westplaining again to the Eastern Europeans, are we?

I can tell you that Poland, Latvia are others are deeply grateful to the UK and US for the security they get from NATO. All very well to be sitting safe and secure in your Monaghan bunker throwing verbal darts at them.

there is no such thing as exclusionary nationalism apart from in your mind, so that is nothing to do with why we won't join nato and join in the nonsense that would bring.

by the way joining nato would equal an expectation that others would rescue us, however as has been revealed, there is no guarantee that other members would do so, nor as there it seems, an obligation for them to do so but to simply meet to discuss the situation of an invasion.

ultimately, we don't need nato to move away from our current defense strategy, we simply need to invest more in our defense forces and keep our military neutrality, ultimately we could never beat a big power in a military face off, so our best defense is to still invest in our defense forces and train them in the use of all sorts of tactics including gurrilla tactics, which would bog the invasion force down.

that is the only option open to us.

No one is saying NATO wants and needs to attack Russia, but well done on the Putin talking points.

'IF' Ukraine adopts neutrality and it brings peace then Neale and Leo's push will be scuppered as the value of neutrality will be underlined, the geo-political gameplayers will have to put the pieces back in the chess box too.

Higgins is right to broach the subject as we have experience, Dev's bravery in keeping us neutral meant the people (of a new fledgling state) won, the warmongers who wanted to drag us in to a war lost. History lesson indeed.

The distinction between military neutrality and political neutrality has been made.

We did not militarily join in WW2.

Surely having the UK, the RAF and the Royal navy between us and the Germans helped us more than neutrality in WW2?

Belgium and the Netherlands tried to remain neutral and both were rapidly invaded, defeated and occupied for years.

That point was made earlier, if somebody wants to invade us then neutrality is of little use. We were not a threat to Germany in WW2. Certainly the Netherlands represented a threat to Germany and the Ruhr Valley if left unoccupied.

Exactly what I said. The Netherlands unoccupied was a threat to Germany. They 'represented' a threat.

We lost so many people in the Famine that we did well to sit out World War II imo.

Nations have interests which they follow a-morally, there is no altruism at the state to state level. Only on the surface would a decision such as this be motivated by 'friendship'.

We should be asking is it in our interest to join NATO or not. Countries like Britain, Finland, Sweden, the US will not be acting out of sentiment whatever they end up doing so we shouldn't either.

The Irish state is in a very unique situation whereby we have only one historic "enemy" and those relations have improved greatly in these early years of our young state. We have the opportunity to be neutral that very few countries have. As soon as we participate in any war, we lose that forever, you can never get neutrality back.

Nato membership for Ireland would mean a bundle of military recourses Ireland could tap into and make use of. Ireland would only benefit from NATO membership.

Also, Irish airspace is already defended by the British RAF, but these contracts to do that are not known to most people in Ireland.

Real neutrality for Ireland would mean armed forces the likes of Switzerland or even Israel, and we all know that Ireland could never afford this expenditure.