If the worst happens, who would come to our defence? We are acutely vulnerable to threat

The strength of the Defence Forces has been allowed to wither so that we now have a total strength of about 7,500 full-time members. Photograph: Dara Mac Dà³naill It is a strange irony that the majority of EU states, including Nato members, are collectively considering how to deal with the threat posed by the emergence of a militarist Russia under Vladimir Putin, who seems bent on re-establishing a dominance over neighbouring states such as Ukraine, Georgia and the Caucasus states, and on forming a global axis with China and North Korea, while Ireland is experiencing a hugely serious decline in…