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

News Snapshot:

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 Dónaill 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...