Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky must have been terribly jet lagged by the time he arrived in Ireland last Tuesday as part of his European tour.
Before landing in Dublin he had already met with the great and the good of Athens, Paris, Madrid, Ankara and Paris again. And since, he’s been to London, Brussels, Rome, and – for his sins – the Vatican.
Everywhere he has gone, he has arrived cap in hand, to conjure some good news out of what has been a disastrous few months.
Zelensky is facing: defeats across the front, the negotiations to end the war between Washington and Moscow – from which he has been almost entirely cut out – and the corruption scandal engulfing his government.
His hope is to cut some deals with his European allies to drum up good PR, and to drag out the war as long as possible, therefore extending his stay in power. He is a desperate man struggling for a lifeline.
But what about his Irish hosts? Why has the government chosen now as the time to roll out the red carpet for him? What lies behind all the fanfare of this ‘historic’ occasion?
Political Circus
According to Taoiseach Micheál Martin’s speech, this visit was to show “Ireland stands with Ukraine” and that “we are making our contribution to help ensure that Putin does not win.”
In terms of concrete support offered however, the main result from the meeting has been a paltry €125 million pledged for ‘non-lethal’ aid to Ukraine’s war effort. Given Ukraine’s €100 billion budget black hole for 2026, this pittance is insignificant both militarily and economically.
The truth is the whole affair has been nothing but a big political show.
This can be heard in the speeches from the day. Ceann Comhairle Verona Murphy explained in her introduction to Zelensky’s Dáil address:
“Our neutrality is a commitment to peace, not indifference. Together with our EU partners, Ireland will stand firm behind Ukraine to ensure Russia ends its aggression”
Though shrouded in a veil of hypocritical phrases, the message is obvious: “Ireland is a ‘neutral’ country in name only. We are absolutely on the side of European imperialism.”
How sickening that so-called “Russian aggression” is the pretext used to justify these attacks on neutrality. It was NATO – including our “EU partners” – who organised regime change in Ukraine in 2014, who then spent a decade arming the Ukrainian regime to the teeth, and who provoked war with Russia in 2022.
They have dragged this war out for nearly four years now, at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives, all in the name of their cynical imperialist interests.
The Irish government is coming under pressure to do ‘their part’ in defending the interests of European and British imperialism, which means they must soften support for neutrality at home.
The main way they do this is through endless scaremongering over Putin and the non-existent ‘threat’ of a Russian invasion or hypothetical Russian attacks on the infrastructure in the Irish Sea.
They laid this propaganda on thick with Zelensky’s visit but they have been doing it long before in the press. In the pages of the Irish Times – the main mouthpiece of the ruling class – we read:
“Irish fretting about the triple lock seems faintly ridiculous in light of Russia threat”
“Ireland faces a stark choice in the face of the threat from Russia”
“Does anyone believe Russia would respect Irish neutrality in a major war in Europe?”
Zelensky’s visit is only the latest part of the government’s project to build up support for militarisation and to undermine support for neutrality amongst Irish workers and youth.
Neutrality under siege
The problem the government is running into is that support for neutrality remains stubbornly high.
In a survey from this spring, only 29 percent of Irish respondents agreed with the statement “I would like to see [Ireland’s policy of neutrality] change so that Ireland can take more responsibility for our own and Europe’s defence”. This is precisely what the government’s policy is.
Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael know that attacking neutrality or increasing military budgets would be unpopular policy for parties that are already widely despised. But the Irish ruling class is subservient to their masters in London and Brussels and so they have little choice but to try and fall in line.
To be sure, for the ruling class, ‘neutrality’ has always being a fig-leaf behind which they hid their subservience to Western imperialism, but now even that degree of ambiguity is becoming intolerable for the imperialists
Particularly since the beginning of the war in Ukraine – and even more since Trump has threatened to withdraw from the continent – the rest of Europe has steamed ahead with militarisation to try to protect their own imperialist interests without American support.
Meanwhile Ireland spends only 0.24 percent of GDP on defence and lacks basic military infrastructure such as radar and sonar to ward off drone attacks and monitor the undersea cables. And the army lacks the ships and planes to guard our seas and skies.
From the standpoint of the Europeans, whose economies have almost completely stagnated and are suffocating under a mountain of debt, Ireland flaunting a large budget surplus and 10 percent GDP growth side-by-side with such disregard for militarisation is intolerable.
They demand the Irish ruling class pick up the pace and stop ‘taking the piss’ to paraphrase a former UK military official.
Hence the fantastical barrage of propaganda about the ‘looming threat posed’ to Ireland from Russia. The Irish ruling class are trying to scare the workers and youth about Putin so they will support their campaign of militarisation and even more explicit alignment with the European imperialists.
Drone ‘attack’
The whole farcical drone affair during Zelensky’s visit, and subsequent media and government response, further exposed the essence of the whole event. What we saw was the government’s attempt to win brownie points from Europe by showing they are serious about Ukraine, and to propagandise against Putin at home.
As well, given that the EU council presidency will be in Ireland next year, they also wanted to show they could run a tight security operation. So the gardaí and army were mobilised. Dublin was made a no-fly zone and Leinster House was locked down for the duration of the trip.
However, as Zelensky was landing on the Monday night, five drones floated into Zelensky’s flight path before flying off into the Irish Sea, having done no harm. Clearly their aim was to be spotted, and to cause panic. This they achieved with flying colours.
Immediately the press in Ireland and internationally was flooded with speculation of Russian drones, hybrid warfare, shadow fleets, a “co-ordinated threat to EU and Ukrainian interests” as Minister Jim O’Callaghan put it. All this despite the fact no evidence was presented to back up these claims. Still they were presented everywhere as truth!
Irish insecurity
So then, what is the balance sheet of Zelensky’s visit?
To the Europeans, Ireland embarrassed themselves. Instead of remembering their tiny tribute paid to Zelensky the lasting impression from the trip will be these drones and the fact Ireland could do nothing about them.
The current EU council president expressed his “full confidence” in Ireland’s ability to safeguard against such disruptions in the future. Behind those diplomatic words they are saying: “Your anti-drone systems better be ready, or else.”
And so instead of relieving some of the pressure from Europe it will only have increased.
Meanwhile at home, whatever uptick in support for military spending might have taken place in recent years – given the chaotic world situation – still there is no love lost for Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael who are plummeting in popularity and given their failures to deliver on other key infrastructure projects, few are likely to trust them on defence either.
It will remain as difficult as ever for the government to enact their programme of radars over renters. They are paralysed trying to reconcile the anger of the working class at home and the demands of the imperialists abroad. They are incapable of appeasing either.
It would take the intervention of a higher power than the Ukrainian President to save them. Short of a miracle, the road ahead is bleak.
