I thought that Ireland had a neutrality policy

It must have passed me by,but I thought that Ireland had a policy of neutrality and I thought that this is what makes us acceptable peacekeepers in areas of turmoil worldwide.
I now hear the Tanaiste making sounds in relation to the East Ukraine that are anything but neutral and decidedly anti Russian.One presumes that he personally will lead the charge against the might of Russia when the time comes and that the Labour Party will compensate the State for exports foregone when Russia pulls the plug on our exports to Russia.
Seriously  can anyone tell me when we as a nation abandoned our long standing policy of neutrality ?
For what its worth it seems to me that all the reportage we get is decidedly anti Russian and it also seems to me that the West and the USA are concentrating on the man and not on the game.A  bit like the character played by Mel Gibson in the film The Patriot,when he abandoned the then convention of letting soldiers  fight soldiers and instead concentrated on killing the Officers.

The West and the USA are applying various sanctions against named officials in Russia and the Ukraine,a bit like they did in Iraq when they placed bounties on the heads of various identified enemies who they wanted dead or alive.
Russia is not as weak as Iraq and the West and USA officials driving the westernisation of Ukraine would want to be careful that Russia and the Ukrainian Russians do not target them in the way that they are targeting their opponents.
IT is difficult for the West and the USA to convincingly argue that it is wrong for sectors of the Ukraine to vote to secede and opt for Russian control of their affairs.
Scotland is being allowed to decide its own fate.Gibraltar is a long way from England as are the Maldives and the inhabitants are allowed to decide their own sovereignty.
The British presence in Ireland was ruthlessly enforced by a cruel military presence and they still occupied the North by virtue of a planted inbuilt core of settlers who dispossessed the natives centuries ago.
The Presidential visit to the Queen recently has resulted in the coming out ,so to speak ,of those closeted Royalists in droves and now we can see why they were so anti republican in outlook and why the State broadcaster was so compliant in censorship over the years.
IT may be that our new found cosiness with the Brits is the reason Eamonn echoes the British policy towards Ukraine
This posturing by the E.U. egged on by the U.S. is a highly dangerous game.
Putin might say "fuck you baby "and let off a few bombs in Europe .I doubt that NATO will so readily bomb Russia as it did an undefended Libya,which is still in a total mess and I would say that there are those there who yearn for the return of Qaddafi.as there must be many who yearn for the peace in Iraq before the blanket bombing began .
THE USA is far away and now fights by unmanned drones from the safety of comfortable bunkers.It has no skin in the game so to speak and I imagine is not brave enough to take on a bully of equal strength..
The kinda innocent EU boys and girls wold want to pull in their horns unless they want a terrible whipping and do what has to be done,which is the carve up of Urkaine on ethnic lines by plebiscite.
Its gonna happen any way.