The event brings together leading academic researchers, legal experts, and former diplomats and politicians to discuss neutrality and international law, Ireland’s diplomatic tradition, and the international arms trade.

Former President Michael D. Higgins will give the closing address on Saturday, with former South African MP and investigator Andrew Feinstein and former MEP and TD Clare Daly, providing Friday’s keynote talks. 

The UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine, Francesca Albanese, will join Laëtitia Sédou of the European Network Against the Arms Trade, and Philip McDonagh, former Irish ambassador to Finland, India, and Russia, amongst other eminent speakers on Saturday.

Sounding the alarm

The immediate context of the People’s Forum is the government’s plans to enact legislation that would remove the triple lock before the summer recess. 

For the first time in the history of the state, the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025 would allow the government of the day to send Irish troops on military operations without a UN mandate led by, or in partnership with the EU, OSCE, or NATO, outside the structures of international law.

Despite opinion polls consistently showing that a large majority of people want Ireland to remain neutral, and 13 County Councils across the island having passed motions in favour of keeping the triple lock, the current government is determined to push ahead with a radical repositioning of the state in world affairs without adequate public debate, let alone the democratic participation of the people.

Redressing the imbalance

The information provided by the government to explain and justify these developments is at best partial and lacking a proper evidence base, and at worst, inaccurate and actively misleading. Perhaps most alarming, the government is not making the stakes of the changes they are preparing clear to the public.

The People’s Forum is designed to redress the limitations of this official discourse by providing the public with clear and accurate information and evidence-based analysis from leading Irish and international experts.

The People’s Forum was partly conceived in response to the Government’s 2023 Consultative Forum, which was stacked with speakers in favour of diluting Irish neutrality, and developing closer military partnerships with the EU and NATO powers, while voices supporting Ireland’s tradition of neutrality were almost wholly excluded.

The Irish public have likewise been ill-served by the national media on these matters. Major media outlets, including the national broadcaster, have failed to fully represent and engage with the government’s proposed policies. 

A small group of ‘security experts’ and commentators supportive of the government’s position have been repeatedly platformed. Voices that oppose government policy, including recognised experts in international law, political science, geopolitics, and diplomacy, have been largely ignored and struggle to get media access.

By redressing this imbalance, the People’s Forum aims to enrich and inform public debate, subject government policy to expert scrutiny, and embolden opposition parties to challenge government plans more effectively.

Where such debate is lacking or curtailed, serious questions about the health of our democracy are raised. 

The narrowing of debate on matters of grave concern to the public risks undermining trust in our democratic institutions — a risk we cannot afford in an age of online misinformation and the rise of anti-democratic forces.

Core concerns

The People’s Forum will focus discussion on three core areas.

First, the role of neutrality in Ireland’s diplomatic tradition. This is a tradition worth defending that has served the country well, keeping us safe at home while grounding the international respect that has facilitated our proud history of UN peacekeeping and an outsize role in UN diplomacy.

Second, militarisation, the arms trade and war profiteering. As Europe invests hundreds of billions of public money in militarisation, Ireland is not immune. 

By increasing military spending, the government will shift public wealth from social crises in housing, health, care, and climate to the purchase of arms. It is crucial to ask what is driving these developments, who stands to benefit, and who will bear its costs.

Finally, international law and Irish neutrality. The triple lock ensures that the UN and international law are at the very core of Irish foreign policy, and we believe that this should remain so. 

International law and the institutions of the UN are under sustained attack by some of the world’s most powerful and aggressive states. 

Whilst these structures certainly need to be reformed, abandoning them will only hasten the acceleration of an ever more volatile and violent world that will not only expose Ireland to greater risks, but will undermine the work of building world peace and the possibility of facing common global challenges, not least climate change.

• Patrick Bresnihan is associate professor of Geography at Maynooth University and Rory Rowan is assistant professor of Geography, Trinity College Dublin