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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
July 2022 27
Sovereignty’, suggested that the Irish Airforce
should spend billions acquiring jet fighters. In
2021 Lockheed sold $26.7bn worth of
“Aeronautics” (as well as $11.7 bn of “missiles
and fire control”. The US government was
responsible for 71% of the company’s revenue.
Wildbridge outlined three options: the first
being the purchase of Lockheed Martin’s F-16
fighters (each costing $64m); the second,
availing of the cheaper jet trainer FA-50 (a joint
venture with South Korea’s AIK and Lockheed
Martin); the third, picking up some second-hand
Lockheed Martin aircraft from the various air
forces that are now moving on to the more
modern F-35.
In eect Lockheed Martin was able to pitch for
a procurement contract worth, at the cheaper end
of the scale, €750 million to an audience
containing many whose opinions will be most
influential in awarding this contract. Competitors
SAAB and Dassault were not afforded an
opportunity to make a rival presentation, but
then again they weren’t key sponsors of the
event.
The problem here is not so much the policy
preferences advanced but that the consensus
among this specific interest group has come to
dominate public discussion. The interest groups
represented at NSSI have succeeded in directing
the terms of the public debate on the presumption
that Russian (but not NATO) military presence in
Irish-policed international waters and airspace
constitutes a threat to our territorial integrity –
one that can only be addressed by an immediate
and massive increase in our military budget.
While many would contest these assumptions,
they have not been questioned by the Irish media.
Certainly not by Newstalk’s Kieran Cuddihy, who
was hired by NSSI to compere the event. And
certainly not the 10 June ‘Prime Time’ report on
the future of the defence forces which
manufactured consent around increased military
spending with almost Chomskian precision,
uncritically regurgitating both the conference’s
speaking points and its speakers. Its only Irish
contributors were Gerry Waldron, Ben Tonra,
Erika O’Leary and Conor King: all of whom were
speakers on 1 June. By leaving their militarist
presumptions unchallenged, RTE allowed the
range of public policy options debated to be
limited to which weapons platforms should be
bought first.
The future of Irish defence and foreign policy is
too important and the expenditure too great to
allow this matter to be settled in advance by
vested interests. The NSSI speakers were a
disappointment since its inaugural 2019 event
was more diverse, with talks by John Murray,
former Chief Justice of Ireland; Deputy Eamon
Ryan Leader of the Green Party; and Dr Jane
Suiter, head of the DCU Institute for Future Media
and Journalism.
Ireland’s military-industrial future isn’t yet too
complex for everyone’s concerns to be heard.
ecosystem whereby no research entity or
university centre is devoted solely to national
security”.
Azure Forum research fellow Ben Tonra was
another panellist. He is also a professor of politics
at UCD – where Heinl is a researcher – and a
director of the Irish Defence and Security
Association which registered as a lobbyist in
2021 to represent the financial interests of “Irish
or Irish-based SMEs, Research Organisations and
Multinational Corporations” in the defence
industry – and recently paid Tonra/Heinl/
Mellett’s Azure Forum to produce a report on the
Irish defence industry.
The non-diversity of the group was precisely
reflected in the non-diversity of opinions aired
and the message in panel discussions and
presentations that Ireland needs to spend billions
every year on weapons of war.
In his talk, Major General Meelis Kiili, the
Estonian military representative at NATO, noted
Estonia’s defence budget which is 2.7%, in pointed
comparison to Ireland’s 0.2%, of GDP. The
pointedness was made more explicit in his
scorching comments that: “They need to learn you
need to pay for that. You need to increase your
defence budget to fund it...Neutrality is a luxury
only rich countries like Switzerland can aord”.
The presentation by JR Wildbridge, Head of
Business Development for Lockheed Martin,
NSSI’s key sponsor, entitled ‘Achieving Air
T
he guests and speakers who attended
the National Security Summit Ireland
(NSSI) 2022 on 1 June at Dublin’s
Westin Hotel included: public
representatives; senior serving and
retired ocers of the Irish, US, UK, European,
Canadian and New Zealand military; university
lecturers; arms manufacturers; and private
security and defence consultants.
The trigonometry of this is the same as the US’s
famous ‘Iron Triangle’: policy-making captured
by a narrow set of interests, represented by
individuals at the intersection of ocialdom,
academia and business.
The purpose of Sláindáil CLG, the not-for-profit
company which organised the event is “to
promote education, debate and discussion of
national security issues in Ireland”. It is run by
Gerry Waldron who served for 16 years in the Irish
Defence Forces but currently works as a non-
consultant hospital doctor in Emergency
Medicine and sits on the Advisory Council of the
MacGill Summer School. He was also a member
of the Commission on the Defence Forces.
So was Caitriona Heinl, current Executive
Director of the thinktank, Azure Forum, which
was established by former Chief of Sta of the
Defence Forces, Mark Mellett, also a speaker at
the event, to “fill the current gap in the national
The presentation by the head of Business
Development for Lockheed Martin, NSSI’s “key
sponsor”, offered three choices but all involved
buying its weapons.
NEWS
Always good
to have some
F-15s around?’
Ireland starts
to get a military-
industrial complex
Too many
speakers at the
NSSI Conference
pushed expensive
weapons of war
By J Vivian Cooke
28 July 2022
down by teachers when they came out at school,
and some were even told that they had a mental
illness. Several were dropped by their friends,
challenged on their identity, and told that they
were ‘just looking for attention’.
One member told me: “My parents are less
supportive than they think. It’s kind of
performative…They won’t use my pronouns...I
feel selfish for expecting the bare minimum from
them”. Another said: “I was always afraid to come
out…I have older cousins who are queer, and I
saw how my family treated them dierently”.
There is a misconception that homo- and trans-
phobia are dying out, confined to dwindling
generations. But young queer people are still
enduring phobia from all sides.
While there has been growth in the Sligo
LGBTQ+ scene in recent years, there is still no
designated safe space, no club or bar. Many
queer people rely on safety in numbers, and
won’t go into the city centre without friends.
There are semi-regular meet-ups arranged, but
many people are unwilling to attend these events
– in case a neighbour sees.
Yes, brutally violent phobia-fuelled murders
are not the norm, but that doesn’t mean that the
LGBTQ+ community is not in near-constant
danger.
she leaves the house. “[Every] time I went out last
week I was followed home by people shouting at
me”.
Before coming out, Pauline was read as a
straight, cis-gender man and never experienced
this type of abuse. “It’s like the world’s easiest
spot-the-dierence”.
Pauline finds that people “go out of their way”
to berate her. In one mid-pandemic instance, a
man spat at her in a crowded street and no-one
came to her aid. “A street full of people did
nothing”.
She has been refused service at multiple
establishments, and had cashiers walk away
from tills and whisper to their manager while
casting looks and gestures back at her – and no
matter how busy the shop, café, or restaurant, no
one has ever stood up for her.
“A tiny minority act horribly, but they’re only
able to do it because the majority allow it…And
it’s not unique to Sligo. I’ve had the same stu in
Dublin, and not once has anyone done anything
to help.”.
SMILEY
The young members of SMILEY, Sligo’s LGBTQ+
youth group, often face prejudice. Most were shut
T
wo gay men were beheaded in their
own homes in Sligo this April. The
queer community here is in mourning,
and in fear. The general mood hasn’t
been helped by the hateful abuse
heaped with impunity at Panti Bliss in early July
in Westport after she had participated in a
reading to children in a bookshop. A man yelled
in her face asking if she had sought Garda
clearance to talk to minors.
Homophobia is not a popular thing to write
about. It’s upsetting on the one hand, and on the
other it’s basically over now, right? We’ve done
the marriage referendum, our former and future
leader is gay, and half the country spent last
month decked out in rainbows. So why go on
about something so old-hat?
Sligo presents itself as a queer-friendly space
– maybe because it looks good to potential
tourists, helps draw students to our shiny new
Technological University, and keeps our housing
market afloat – but we are not safe here. And not
much is being done to correct that, or even
acknowledge it. As we move out of Pride month,
let’s not go back to ignoring homophobia.
Francis
Francis is a gay man, a Sligo native, and was a
friend of Michael Snee, the second murder
victim. Many of Francis’ queer friends are too
afraid to come out publicly, especially after what
happened in April.
Francis has been the victim of regular hateful
acts in his neighbourhood. He’s had his car and
front -door locks glued shut, €900 worth of work
equipment stolen from his property, the clothes
drying in his garden slashed to bits and “smeared
in dog shit”.
“It started about a year and a half ago. The
wheels on my [car] were loosened… The tyres are
let down every night. I had to buy a machine to
pump them up, it takes me half an hour every
morning”.
“I lost two stone from the anxiety…I still walk
into my house looking over my shoulder”. The
Garda were called to Francis’ home on three
occasions but were unwilling to search for the
culprit(s) because he had no CCTV footage.
“I spent hundreds making my back garden
perfect, and now I’m too afraid to go into it”.
Francis is not in a financial position to move and
so made a plea to the County Council housing
service, which was ignored.
Pauline
“There’s this idea that Sligo is a friendly place. I
don’t see that”. Pauline is a trans woman living in
Sligo, and she gets harassed almost every time
Another gay man had his car and front-door locks
glued shut, his tyres repeatedly let down, €900
worth of equipment stolen, and the clothes drying
in his garden “smeared in dog shit”
NEWS
Sligoing backwards
Though ‘queer friendly’, Sligo, where two gay men
were recently beheaded, ignores homophobia
By Róisín O’Shea
