The Neutrality Files – Volume 2

In Ireland, we are proud of our long history of peacekeeping and commitment to neutrality.

But there is a small, well-resourced network of arms industry lobbyists and their allies in think tanks and advisory committees who have secured access and influence in Ireland that ordinary citizens do not have.

This report pulls back the curtain on that network and highlight how decisions on defence spending and the direction of Ireland’s military are made.

You can read the full report of ‘The Defence Club: How a Handful of Insiders Shape Ireland’s Security Debate’ here.

Or click here for the Neutrality Files part one.

The Irish Defence and Security Association (IDSA) is a group that lobbies on behalf of the biggest arms dealers in the world including Lockheed Martin, Patria, Saab, Hensoldt, and Kongsberg. These companies make billions of dollars from selling weapons and see their stock values rise when wars break out.

Irish government meetings with this group are frequent, with at least 25 such engagements taking place between government ministers and officials and the IDSA between late 2021 and mid-2025, as well as networking events and industry parties hosted by the Department of Defence and Defence Forces.

Ireland’s defence and security landscape includes a network of interconnected companies, representative bodies, think tanks, and academic institutions — many with overlapping personnel and undisclosed affiliations. A leading think tank in the Irish defence space is the Azure Forum.

The Azure Forum for Contemporary Security Strategy is Ireland’s only dedicated security think tank. It describes itself as independent and non-partisan. However, this claimed independence is considerably undermined by undisclosed structural ties to the Irish Defence and Security Association (IDSA).

There is significant overlap between the Directorship of the IDSA and the Directorship of the Azure Forum but this has not been disclosed at at least two major government-run panels.

• Three of the Azure Forum’s five directors are also directors of the IDSA — and all three IDSA directors hold positions at the Azure Forum.
• The Azure Forum’s website does not mention that its members include IDSA directors.
• One Azure director chaired sessions at the government’s Consultative Forum on International Security Policy(2023) without disclosing their IDSA membership.
• The same director served on the government’s Commission on the Defence Forces (2022) — again without disclosing their IDSA role.
• Internal IDSA strategy documents, obtained by The Ditch, confirm that the Azure Forum is treated as integral to the IDSA’s own strategic project — arranging meetings with the Department of Defence and connecting the IDSA with NATO industry advisory groups.

Ireland’s relationship with NATO and EU defence structures has deepened significantly in recent years, largely without public debate or democratic mandate:

• Ireland joined NATO’s Partnership for Peace in 1999 and has since expanded cooperation from 15 to 22 tasks, adding intelligence operations and cybersecurity.
• In February 2024, Ireland signed an Individual Tailored Partnership Programme (ITPP) with NATO, granting access to sensitive intelligence.

A redacted Department of Defence briefing document, accessed by The Journal, warned the incoming Minister for Defence that EU “tolerance” for Ireland’s neutrality may diminish as other previously neutral states have joined NATO. The document noted that Ireland’s upcoming EU Council Presidency in 2026 will require acting as an “honest broker” on defence policy in areas “where Ireland has displayed considerable sensitivities heretofore.”

Senator Tom Clonan (Order of Business, March 2025) noted that in a 24-day period, 48 opinion and analysis pieces appeared in Irish broadsheets and on national broadcasters calling for Ireland to abandon its neutral stance — compared to three or four such pieces per year historically. This represents a dramatic intensification of public pressure that bears the hallmarks of a coordinated lobbying effort.

Commentary in The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Times, and Politico has framed Ireland as a ‘freeloader’ on European defence — often citing think tanks with undisclosed links to the arms industry, and making comparisons to Ireland’s neutrality in World War II.

We know that the vast majority of people in Ireland cherish our neutrality and want no part in US, Israeli or EU wars for profit. Knowing the information in The Neutrality Files is useless unless we act on it.

Traditionally Fianna Fáil have been the party in government championing Irish neutrality, but now the Fianna Fáil leadership are abandoning it, when we need it most.

Email your Fianna Fáil TDs right now and urge them not to lay down and accept the dismantlement of Irish neutrality.

The world needs neutral peacebrokers now, more than ever. If we all sit back and wait for someone else to act, our neutrality will be lost forever.