***This event has been postponed and will not be going ahead as planned on 8 April 2024. The event is anticipated to be rearranged for autumn 2024***

Speaker: Professor Rory Montgomery

Chair: Professor Richard English

European integration, the war in Ukraine, and the possible re-election of Donald Trump are changing the European security and defence landscape.  However, in Ireland debate continues to be dominated by disagreement on whether recent or future developments might breach the principle of neutrality. 

Drawing on his many years of diplomatic experience, Rory Montgomery will analyse what Irish neutrality means today, and consider how Ireland’s security and defence policy might evolve in coming years.  He will also look at the implications of this issue for a possible united Ireland.

Biography

Professor Rory Montgomery is a former Irish diplomat who served as Permanent Representative to the EU, Ambassador to France and Second Secretary General at the Departments of the Taoiseach and Foreign Affairs with responsibility for EU issues, in particular Brexit.

He was a member of the Irish team which negotiated the Good Friday Agreement and the establishment of the North/South institutions.

He is now Chair of the Press Council of Ireland, a member of the Royal Irish Academy, and was appointed as Honorary Professor of Practice to the Mitchell Institute in 2019.

Rory is the presenter of the monthly ARINS podcast on issues relating to the future of Ireland North and South, and has contributed to the Irish Times, Fortnight, and the Dublin Review of Books.