Ardfield man defends forum protest

A MEMBER of the Cork Neutrality Forum has defended the group’s high-profile protests at security forum on Irish security which took place at UCC.

Dominic Carroll, from Ardfield, was involved in a heated exchange with Tánaiste Micheál Martin at the first day of the consultative forum on Ireland’s international security policy, which took place at UCC.

Mr Carroll said he and other protestors were not being given due consideration at the meeting.  ‘I was going to make a point of order to Dame Louise Richardson (the chair of the forum) the effect that the forum was unbalanced but Mr Martin refused to allow the point of order. I said to him “you’re not the chair”.’

The protestors continued to heckle as they felt Mr Martin was ignoring them. Eventually they were removed by gardaí.

Mr Carroll stressed that all protests were non-violent. Further sessions of the forum were held at NUI Galway and Dublin Castle, where protests continued, organised by the Irish Neutrality League, to which the Cork Neutrality League is affiliated. Later Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said there will not be a referendum on Irish neutrality and Nato membership, and that there are no plans to join the military alliance.

However, Mr Carroll fears an erosion of the ‘triple lock’ system, which states that Ireland must have cabinet and Dáil approval and a UN mandate before deploying troops. ‘Our immediate objective is to protect the triple lock,’ said Mr Carroll.