Role
Ireland's favourable geographical location, on the north-west border of the European Union, makes any external threat or future invasion unlikely. The state has a long-standing policy of non-belligerence in armed conflicts that included neutrality in World War II. For these reasons, the Republic's military capabilities are relatively modest. However, the state has a long history of involvement in United Nations Peacekeeping operations. Functions of the Defence Forces include:
- Preparation for the defence of the state against armed attack.
- Assisting the Garda Síochána (police force), including the protection of the internal security of the state.
- Peace-keeping, crisis management and humanitarian relief operations in support of the United Nations.
- Policing the fisheries, in accordance with the state's obligations under European Union agreements.
- Miscellaneous civil contingency duties requested by the Government such as search and rescue, air ambulance provision, providing secure air transport for ministers, assistance in the event of natural and other disasters, ensuring the maintenance of essential services, and assisting in dealing with oil pollution at sea.
Read more about this topic: Defence Forces (Ireland)
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“The Declaration [of Independence] was not a protest against government, but against the excess of government. It prescribed the proper role of government, to secure the rights of individuals and to effect their safety and happiness. In modern society, no individual can do this alone. So government is not a necessary evil but a necessary good.”
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“The real test of a man is not how well he plays the role he has invented for himself, but how well he plays the role that destiny assigned to him.”
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“The trouble is that the expression ‘material thing’ is functioning already, from the very beginning, simply as a foil for ‘sense-datum’; it is not here given, and is never given, any other role to play, and apart from this consideration it would surely never have occurred to anybody to try to represent as some single kind of things the things which the ordinary man says that he ‘perceives.’”
—J.L. (John Langshaw)