 there is a project in progress of shaming the Irish for adopting a neutral stance. It is a preposterous project because my friends used to be very proud of Irish neutrality. To be neutral does not mean to be a moral relativist. To take an equidistant position from hideous conflicts where there is clearly a perpetrator and a victim of a perpetrator. What neutrality means is that the people of Ireland have the opportunity to decide amongst themselves the merits of every case, the justice or injustice of a particular war. Instead of being railroaded into a collective position which is not that of a commonwealth of independent and democratic states, take Austria. Austria was a neutral state throughout the Cold War. Did that mean it took no sides? It did not take a moral position regarding for instance the invasion by the Soviet tanks of Prague and Czechoslovakia during the Prague Spring? No, it didn't. What it means is that you retain your sovereignty when it comes to matters of security, of peace, of war. When NATO takes the position, it is the will, the iron will of the United States and not of the United States of America, not of the American people, but indeed of the American military industrial complex against which President Eisenhower, a Republican and a war hero want Americans against, let alone the Irish or the Greeks. Irish neutrality is a great virtue that you should guard with your lives. Now let me turn to the question of the European Union and the rather lofty and touching faith that we all have a duty to bind together under the auspices of the European Commission and participate in a common defence programme, a common defence procurement programme, primarily, this is all about commerce, arms trades, and the idea that the European Union should create a common army. Remember what Gandhi said when he was asked once what he thought of British civilisation? His answer was sardony. It would be a great idea. Similarly, the European Union would be a fantastic idea except we don't have one. We have a confederacy of big business, big banking, and now of the military industrial complex of Germany, of France and of Italy competing against one another for huge defence contracts. They have nothing to do with the security of the French people or the German people, indeed of the Ukrainian people. Imagine how low in the pecking order the interests of the Irish and the Greek people are. When the powers that be talk to us about the potential of a European army. Let's say we formed a army. Who would decide whether to send those men and women to the front line, to war? Who? Also a front-line. Mr. Borel, Schultz, Macron, we don't have a legitimate, legitimising government elected by European citizens, for European citizens that decide matters of war and peace. So we're preposterous to have a European army unless we have a federation. But who's talking about a federation? They're not talking about federation. They're talking about common procurement. That is, while denying Europeans a common health system, a common education system, a common migration policy, a common refugee policy, a common policy for treating human beings humanely rather than pushing them back into the stormy seas of the Mediterranean and directing hideous fences that only maximise the profits of the traffickers that they are talking about common defence. This is all about money. Just follow the money. The Irish should stay away from this. The Greeks should stay away from this. The French should stay away from this. This has nothing to do with our defence. And in any case, friends, ever since the war in Ukraine started, that hideous war, which I personally condemned Putin for, I've been condemning Putin since he killed 250,000 judges in 2001, when I was a very lone voice against Putin, calling him a criminal when the rest of the West was doing brisk trade and business with him. At the very same time, NATO has utilised the Ukraine war to prolong it forever, in order to ensure that whatever smidgen of European sovereignty there was has been surrendered to NATO and in particular to Washington DC. We are a vassal continent. We do not have anything coming close to a sovereign European voice, let alone a sovereign defence policy. Ireland must maintain its neutrality, which goes hand in hand with the capacity of the people of Ireland to decide who is a war criminal, which nation, country, region deserves your support, even military support. This should be up to you to decide, not up to some prerogative that comes down through the NATO chain of command, which is built in order to be a democratic. It is built in order to deny the people of Ireland and the people of every member state of NATO any say in matters of security, of war and peace. Stay strong, stay neutral. Carpe Diem, as we Diem 25ers like to say.