Over the past year the French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and outgoing EU Commission President Jean Claude Junker all proclaimed that the European Union will have its own army capable of foreign intervention.
Indeed such a defence arrangement is enshrined in the Lisbon Treaty.
Ireland has always been resistant to this but now the government have sought to drop any pretence of neutrality and the Dáil have passed a motion allowing the Defence Forces to taken part in a German led EU Battle Group that will be on stand-by for six months from July 2020.
In December 2017 Ireland quietly and with little media fan fare signed up for the Permanent Structure Cooperation and Security agreement (PESCO) an integral steppingstone on the path to an integrated EU army.
Earlier this year the French President provoked shock and concern when he said that an EU army was necessary to protect the bloc against Russia, China and the United States.
These developments have caused concern for many who fear that Irish men and women may some day be fighting neo-imperial wars under German command for the interests of the Brussels elite.
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