Cork protestors to explain why they disrupted security and defence forum 

THE Cork branch of Connolly Youth Movement (CYM), a youth Marxist and Socialist-Republican organisation, is to host an event on Friday to explain why disrupted a security and defence policy forum last week.

of CYM were among a group that protested at the opening session of the Consultative Forum on International Security Policy convened by Tánaiste, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Defence, Micheál Martin.

As Mr Martin began his opening address at the forum in University College Cork last Thursday, he was repeatedly heckled by of CYM.

The Cork branch now intends to hold a meeting on Friday outlining its concerns.

“What we also want to talk about is the importance of being organised, that it’s not enough to just talk about how we’re opposed to these things, but that something actually has to be done about it, because within the last year or so there has been a huge acceleration, in of looking at more aggressive forms of foreign policy and kind of dragging the State into that,” Rachel Hurley, a member of CYM Cork, told The Echo.

The aim of the forum was to build public understanding and generate discussions on foreign, security, and defence policies.

The forum, which concluded on Tuesday, also saw meetings taking place in Galway and Dublin.

Ahead of the events, the Government said the forum would focus on “a wide range of issues, including Ireland’s efforts to protect the rules-based international order through peacekeeping and crisis management, disarmament and non-proliferation, international humanitarian law, and conflict prevention and peace-building, as well as allowing for a discussion on Ireland’s policy of military neutrality”.

It said the forum would be “open, inclusive, and consultative” and would involve a wide range of stakeholders, with participation from civilian and military experts and practitioners representing “a breadth of experience and views”.

Criticism

However, the forum attracted some criticism, most notably from President Michael D Higgins, who said he believed Ireland was “playing with fire” in a drift towards Nato. His comments appeared in a recent Sunday Business Post interview.

At the opening of the forum in Cork last week, five protesters who heckled Mr Martin’s opening speech were removed by gardaí after declining to “desist from disruptive activity”, a Garda spokesperson told The Echo last Thursday.

Mr Martin criticised the protesters, telling them he had learned the value of free speech in UCC.

“The most undemocratic thing you can do is try to shut down debate, which is what you’re trying to do,” he said.

Speaking to The Echo ahead of the CYM Cork event on Friday, Ms Hurley dismissed this remark.

“If it was a democratic debate, we’d be there participating in it, but it’s not a debate when everyone in there is nodding their heads and agreeing with each other,” she said.

The CYM event takes place in Bear Street Co coffee shop on Barrack St at 5.30pm on Friday.