Ireland After Multilateralism: Why Irish Foreign Policy Is Doomed to Fail

Ireland is unprepared for a multipolar international system and the country’s gombeen controlled foreign policy is on the brink of crisis. 

This crisis comes as a result of decadeslong failures to invest in security infrastructure, as well as Ireland’s absent-minded commitment to multilateral foreign policy, while repeatedly sabotaging bilateral relations with other countries. 

As a small country, with a lack of military infrastructure, reliant on global investment, and a recent history of aggravating other countries, Irish foreign policy is discernibly a disaster.

The dilemma between values and national interest is a recurring theme in Irish foreign policy as well, as policy-makers are convinced Ireland's national interests are in fact our country's values of human rights, democracy, and international development aid.

The Department of Foreign Affairs’ 2016 policy paper, aspirationally titled The Global Island, outlined this delusion among Irish foreign policy coordinators that the country indeed does not have national interests outside the remits of Western values. Though the document pays lip-service to Ireland’s legacy of cultural diplomacy and soft power through humanitarian aid assistance, its contents portray a delusional foreign policy fan fiction of how Irish elites think states should behave. 

Perhaps most jarring of these policies is the document’s attempt to explain why it is within the national interest of a small island nation on the periphery of Europe to spend billions of its citizens’ money in free giveaways to the Third World. 

The inconsistency and incomprehensible contradictions of Irish foreign policy can only be explained with a peculiar Irish social archetype: the gombeen. The word gombeen refers to corrupt businessmen, politicians, or landlords responsible for exploiting Irish people during the Famine, and has since become a staple of Ireland’s moribund political life.

Far from moneyed-interests and corporate lobbying, Irish politics is largely driven by small local gombeens with competing self-interests. Irish government policy is then decided by an unholy alliance between the regional gombeen and his woke urbanite counterpart. 

Ireland has made itself a target for the incoming Trump administration, with co-chair of President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team Howard Lutnick calling out Ireland’s trade surplus with America as problematic. 

Taoiseach Simon Harris similarly has drawn attention for an instagram post of a photograph of a Kamala Harris presidential campaign hat shipped to his address, including the caption “If the cap fits….”

Aside from Irish leaders jeopardising the country’s standing with the United States by publicly favouring the losing side of its most important election in decades, several other countries have reason to be irritated by Ireland’s irresponsible conduct on the world stage. 

The Irish government’s irresponsible commentary on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has drawn attention internationally, further damaging the country’s image for failing to justify its foreign policy position. Ireland’s support for Palestine has resulted in the recalling of the Israeli Ambassador to the country as Irish-Israeli relations continue to sour. 

Ethiopia, a large recipient of Irish international aid assistance, expelled Irish diplomats in 2022 after Ireland spear-headed a UN resolution for ceasefire between Ethiopia and separatist Tigrayan militia groups operating in the Northern region of the country. 

Ireland’s bizarre gombeen diplomacy is epitomised by the October 2023 appointment of former Fianna Fail party politician Terry Leyden as Honorary Consul for Azerbaijan in Ireland. Leyden expressed his support for the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, saying “They reclaimed their rightful territory, which is their right. If east Donegal was occupied by the British or the coloniser, what would we do?” This comment contradicts the strong support given by Ireland to Armenia at the UN Security Council following the initiation of hostilities.

The Russian ambassador warned that Irish support for Ukraine and Western sanctions would violate Irish neutrality, promising retaliation from Moscow. Though Ireland has slacked in its self-defence capabilities, the country’s leadership have fanatically declared that Ireland is not neutral anymore. 

Formerly the keystone of Irish foreign policy, now relegated to a military doctrine for a nation without a military force, the Irish government has exacerbated its significant security flaws.

Ireland’s failure to adopt a defence policy has left the country vulnerable to hostile states, with Ireland unable to prevent repeated Russian forays into Irish waters to map critical undersea internet cables. Ireland’s blatant lack of security has forced the country into under-the-table deals with the Royal Air Force to patrol Irish airspace. 

Currently Ireland spends more on funding its vast international aid programme than it does on investment for its Defence Forces or security infrastructure. Ireland has an annual capital expenditure of €176 million in its defence sector and operates a €1.23 billion budget for the Irish Defense Forces.

By contrast, in 2023 the Department of Foreign Affairs estimated its gross expenditure would be €1.057 billion, of which over €716 million would be used to fund its development aid charity, Irish Aid. 

Including Ireland’s excessive funding of its NGO-charity complex, Ireland’s Official Development Assistance for 2024 will be under €2 billion. 

For context regarding Irish fiscal spending anomalies, Ireland spent €931 million in the first half of 2024 on accommodating refugees and asylum seekers. 

The financial imbalance between funding for Irish security infrastructure and public expenditure housing asylum seekers or in international development aid is astonishing for a small nation, which in theory should be much more concerned about domestic issues. 

For decades Ireland thought that just being a member of international institutions was the apex of diplomacy, and impulsively began to damage Irish bilateral diplomacy in a childish attempt to show their colleagues in the U.S. Democratic Party how liberal Ireland had become. 

As international institutions become increasingly defunct and irrelevant to a multipolar system, Ireland is left without fall-back options. Ireland’s stained image as an unreliable partner incapable of sustaining bilateral diplomatic relationships is a direct threat to Ireland’s apparent desirability as a location for foreign investment. 

Without an insurance policy to adapt to the ground shaking changes of international politics, Ireland will increasingly find itself diplomatically isolated for its irrational conduct, and its gombeen government will quickly find that no amount of bribery can mend their relationships with the nations whose interests they have scorned.