The Taoiseach has cautioned against a Constitutional guarantee of Irish neutrality and repeated his contention that the triple lock gives Russia a say in the deployment of Irish peacekeeping troops. Mr Martin spoke to the Irish Examiner in Cork at the unveiling of a plaque honoring Blarney Street native Brigadier General Stephen Moylan, the American Revolutionary War hero who first coined the phrase “the United States.”Asked about an Irish Times/Ipsos poll showing 71% of respondents supported enshrining Irish neutrality in the Constitution, the Taoiseach said he would have “significant concerns” about such a move. “First of all, you need to define neutrality,” he said. “There’s a lot of hot noise around military neutrality, but we won’t be fighting any war any time soon. Mr Martin said that when he visited Irish peacekeeping troops in Lebanon before Christmas, they asked about Ireland’s future role in peacekeeping, given that the UN Security Council had withdrawn the peacekeeping mandate from Lebanon.

Source: Irish Examiner February 07, 2026 22:23 UTC