A report on Ireland's neutrality, adopted by the conference of the Methodist Church in Ireland, which ended in Dublin yesterday, says the role of the Irish Army "would appear to be closer to the aim (for armed forces) which Christians can support."
The report, by the Church's Council on Social Responsibility, stated that "as a Church we would wish them (Irish armed forces) to stay more as they are, and indeed the armies in other countries move closer to that role."
The remarks were made in a section entitled "Neutrality, Armies and Military Alliances", which observes that "Ireland's neutrality was originally a device to serve a particular circumstance in the past, and it was never an unbiased neutrality in practice."
Looking at other neutral European countries, it says none seem to offer "useful precedents for a policy of principled neutrality based on the immorality of war."
Finland and Austria's neutrality was "a pragmatic response to their precarious location sandwiched between East and West during the Cold War", while Sweden and Switzerland "are heavily armed (and active exporters of weaponry) with an aggressive self-defence policy."
It contrasts the position in those countries with that in Ireland, where "a small standing army, with no conscription . . . is primarily concerned with (a) support and back-up for the (unarmed) police, and related services including the Customs Service, (b) maintenance of internal security (mainly from the threat of terrorism), (c) UN peacekeeping missions."
The reports states that "in the context of an evolving level of EU political integration, it is not unreasonable, per se, that an EU policy involving all the member states should be devised."
A common EU defence policy should recognise that the original institutions which evolved into the EU "were founded on the moral principle of banishing war and oppression from Europe".
In a section on racism and refugees the report urges the Government to fully implement the Refugee Act "immediately".
Conference delegates elected the Rev Dr Ken Wilson as the Church's President-designate for the 1999/2000 year.
