Ireland's Inability to Defend Itself

Summary

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Ireland this week for his first official state visit. Extensive security measures were put in place across Dublin and the surrounding areas ahead of the high-profile visit. It has since emerged that four military drones breached a no-fly zone and flew toward Zelensky’s plane shortly before it landed at Dublin Airport on Monday night. They were drones, but not the sort you buzz the neighbour’s cat with. It is being reported that these were serious, military-grade pieces of hardware, and for two unhurried hours, they did lazy, insolent loops in the sky above an Irish naval vessel, their navigation lights brazenly glowing in the dark. It was less an intrusion than a slow, deliberate loitering, a military mechanical staring contest. No one is officially putting a name to the culprits. Russian? Probably. Nuisance-happy hobbyists with suspiciously deep pockets? Your guess is as good as MI6’s. But the Irish security services have a theory. With Zelensky due to touch down, drones that fly with their lights on aren’t trying to be subtle; they’re trying to be seen. The aim wasn’t surveillance so much as theatre, a deliberate flex to rattle the cage and complicate the diplomatic proceedings. It’s the sort of provocation that’s too deniable to be an act of war, but too pointed to be anything but hostile. In the parlance of our times, it’s what you’d call a spot of ‘hybrid warfare’: cost-effective, electronically delivered bullying, leaving a sovereign nation to scratch its head and wonder why anyone would be annoyed at us. Zelensky’s aircraft touched down slightly ahead of schedule at 11 p.m., a fortunate detail, as the drones would have been directly in President Zelensky’s flight path if it had arrived on time. Some security analysts are calling it an assassination attempt on Zelensky. We all really know who was behind this. The Russian quislings in the Irish Parliament will talk about NATO and provocation. But Ireland is like...