Irish passports and hostage taking

From the very outset, I was uncomfortable with the idea of the Irish goverment issuing a passport in Ken Bigley's name. While the motives were very noble -- trying, simply and passionately, to save a man's life -- the implications were very disturbing.

Kevin Myers writes an excellent piece detailing just how close Ireland came to political catastrophy for its meddling. For me though, the implication was even more sad. It seemed that Ireland would take its neutrality so far as if to say, "We've no quarrel with you, hostage takers. Don't bother us and we'll steer clear of you", and in doing so abandon its very substantial affinity with the US and Britain, and close its eyes to the most significant conflict of the next century, namely, radical Islam vs. everything else.