Ireland was first alerted to the threat when the Russian spy ship Yantar visited Irish and UK waters in 2024. Photograph: Royal Navy/PA
Russian presence in Irish waters underscores the fact that, rather than being out of sight and out of mind, the country is on the frontline
For a long time, Ireland paid little attention to its surrounding seas, a vast maritime area, 10 times the size of the land.
Alarm bells began ringing only when a Russian spy ship, the Yantar, began visiting Irish waters. The vessel, ostensibly a research ship, is believed to be capable of attaching spy equipment to undersea cables and has advertised its presence. While loitering in the Irish Sea in 2024, the ship remained over a gas pipeline connecting Ireland and the UK and turned on its transponder, as if broadcasting its proximity to critical infrastructure.
In recent weeks, Irish officials have also noticed a rise in Russian shadow fleet vessels traversing the north Atlantic in order to circumvent British and French waters, where controls have been stepped up.
For officials, the Russian presence in or near Irish waters underscores that Ireland, which has long viewed itself as protected by geography – out of sight and out of mind – is really on the frontline.
And the threat is broad. Irish waters are busy: dense with shipping lanes, gas pipelines and transatlantic internet cables, which helped lure US tech companies to make Ireland their European headquarters. Nearly 75% of transatlantic subsea cables pass through or close to Ireland’s exclusive economic zone, the 200-nautical mile space where it has sovereign rights over natural resources, which is seven times greater than the land mass. It has more limited jurisdiction over an even broader area.
Map of Ireland and Britain showing Ireland's exclusive economic zone.
When Ireland took charge of the EU’s rotating presidency this month, it had a message. While its totemic neutrality is not up for debate, the days of Ireland’s slumber on defence are over. Security is listed as a priority of Ireland’s six months chairing the Council of the EU.
Ireland would be working with other European nations “on shared objectives and priorities in defending our critical infrastructure, and making sure that we are focused on security more broadly”, Ireland’s foreign minister, Helen McEntee, told reporters earlier this month. “We are not immune to any threat.”
That sounds unremarkable, but signals a reassessment of Ireland’s approach to defence. In February, McEntee published Ireland’s first ever maritime strategy, which aims to end Ireland’s “sea blindness” – the sense that security was purely about the land. Officially, it aims to ensure Ireland can defend its maritime domain, including critical undersea infrastructure.
‘We are not immune to any threat,’ said Helen McEntee, the foreign minister, who has published Ireland’s first maritime strategy. Photograph: Bryan Meade/EPA
There is still a long way to go. “We are dependent on the goodwill of friends and neighbours,” said the retired Irish naval officer Caoimhín Mac Unfraidh. “But it wasn’t always the case and it won’t always be the case.”
During a 29-year career in the Irish Naval Service, Mac Unfraidh commanded two ships, the LÉ Orla and the LÉ Eithne. Both were decommissioned in 2022 along with a third vessel.
He described the maritime strategy as “a good effort”, but feared spending remained “minimalist”, despite pledges for sonar and radar equipment. “What is needed is that sort of overarching vision for a maritime nation to have a navy worthy of its name. And that means new ships, with new capabilities, recruitment campaigns and the establishment of several more bases.”
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In 2025, Ireland’s government confirmed only two ships were in operation out of a fleet of eight, partly because of a staffing crisis.
The broader neglect of the military was highlighted earlier this month, when Volodymyr Zelenskyy turned down an offer from Dublin to send 27 light-armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine. “The cost of restoring them is higher than the value they would provide,” the Ukrainian president said.
Irish government officials stress that Ireland has pledged €1.7bn (£1.4bn) in defence capital spending for 2026-30, a 55% increase on the previous period. And the government believes it has turned a corner on naval recruitment, with an increase in new joiners leading to a 12% increase in personnel in 2025, compared with the previous year.
But Ireland remains the lowest defence spender in the EU, at a time when other countries are sharply increasing budgets. In 2024, Ireland spent just 0.2% of its gross domestic product on defence, far behind the 1.3% EU average and notably lower than neutral Austria (0.6%).
EU officials have offered sotto voce criticism. The former European Commission vice-president Margrethe Vestager, who was responsible for tech policy, warned Ireland in 2022 that it had a responsibility for the maritime zone: “No one can be a weak link of our chain of protection.”
In 2025 a former Estonian president, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, excoriated Ireland’s then president Michael Higgins after he criticised Nato’s “appalling” appeal for higher spending in response to the Russian threat. “Do these people have any sense of self-awareness, their privileged geography or the appropriateness of even commenting as the beneficiary of implicit Nato security?” Ilves said.
Members of the Irish navy form a guard of honour for the arrival of Pope Francis in Dublin, August 2018. The Irish Naval Service was formed in 1946. Photograph: Dylan Martinez/Reuters
Despite being an island nation, the sea was nobody’s political priority. Ireland gained independence in 1922, but the British retained control of Irish waters until 1938. Ireland did not have a fully fledged navy until 1946.
Eoin McNamara, at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, observes: “National security tends to be very divisive politically in Ireland, without bringing a whole lot of political reward, aka votes.”
Last year, the Nato-critical leftwinger Catherine Connolly won a landslide to become Ireland’s president. During her campaign she compared Germany’s military spending to the 1930s and said she was concerned about arms spending and the “militarisation” of the EU.
Meanwhile, people see the cost of living, housing and immigration as the most important issues facing Ireland, according to a recent poll from More in Common. Foreign and security issues were barely on the radar: 5% cited the war in Ukraine and 4% defence.
“There is a lot of momentum from public opinion to focus on these bread-and-butter domestic issues,” McNamara said. Defence, he said, was “the insurance policy of the economy”, alluding to the profound economic shock posed by disruption to internet or energy cables. “I don’t think that has reached public opinion yet.”
