Freedom to Choose? Report on the Consultative Forum on International Security Policy

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Report prepared by StoP.

The title of our response recalls that of Tánaiste Micheál Martin’s well-regarded book Freedom to Choose: Cork & Party Politics in Ireland,1918–1932 (2009) on the emergence of nonviolent politics in Cork after theCivil War. In his Conclusion he emphasises ‘the importance and integritywith which men and women in democratic societies can, in honour andfreedom, express an opinion on the issues of the day... This essential libertythat whatever the issue, the people of Ireland can choose their destiny bydemocratic means is one which I hold very dear.’ This vital commitment,spelt out in Article 6 of Bunreacht na hÉireann, has been absent from therecent development of our Foreign and Defence policies, as seen mostrecently in the reality of the Government’s ‘Consultative Forum’.