Sheep amble around steel fences skirting Ireland's largest military base on a grassy plain west of Dublin, a bucolic scene masking an underfunded defence force struggling with outdated equipment.
Ireland's threadbare military and its long-standing policy of neutrality are under heightened scrutiny as the country prepares to assume the rotating EU presidency from July.
"Ireland is the only EU country with no primary radar system, nor have we sonar or anti-drone detection equipment - let alone the ability to disable drones," said former Irish special forces member Cathal Berry.
"We can't even monitor the airspace over our capital city and main airport," he said as he surveyed Ireland's main military base at The Curragh. That was dramatically illustrated during a visit to Ireland by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Several drones of unidentified origin were spotted above Dublin Bay as Zelensky's plane arrived on December 1, which were detected only by the naked eye and blamed on pro-Russian actors.
Russia's Dublin embassy has denied any involvement.
Militarily neutral Ireland is not a Nato member, yet its waters - seven times its landmass - account for around 16 per cent of the EU's total.
Nearly three-quarters of transatlantic subsea cables run close to or beneath them.
But the Irish army numbers only a few thousand troops, is focused largely on UN peacekeeping missions and has neither a combat air force nor a sizeable navy. Ireland's annual defence spending of roughly 1.2 billion euros is the lowest in Europe at around 0.2 per cent of GDP, well below the EU average of 1.3.
"Neutrality itself is actually a fine policy. If you want to have it, it must be defended," said retired Irish army colonel Dorcha Lee.
"That's the whole point. Undefended neutrality is absolutely definitely not the way to go."
Berry points to a long-standing "complacency" about defence in Ireland that has fuelled a vacuum in debate over neutrality and military spending.
"If you wanted to squeeze the EU without any risk of Nato retaliation, Ireland is where you'd come," he said, adding that also applied to US interests in Europe.
US tech giants like Google, Apple and Meta have their European headquarters in Ireland, supported by vast data centres that analysts say are vulnerable to cyberattacks.
Visiting Dublin days after Zelensky's trip, European Council President Antonio Costa said he was still "confident" Ireland could protect EU summits during its presidency.
Defence Minister Helen McEntee has pledged that new counter-drone technology will be in place by then.
Speaking in front of a row of ageing army vehicles at the Curragh military site, she also announced a broader increase in military spending, although the actual details remain unclear.
On December 17, the Irish government said it plans to buy a military radar system from France at a reported cost of between 300 and 500 million euros (around $350-$585 million).
For Paul Murphy, a left-wing opposition member of parliament, "scaremongering over allegedly Russian drones with concrete evidence still unprovided" is giving the government cover to steer Ireland away from neutrality towards Nato.
"But it's more important than ever that we're genuinely neutral in a world that is increasingly dangerous," he said.
Ireland has historically prioritised economic and social spending over defence investment, he said.
"Joining an arms race that Ireland cannot compete in would waste money that should be spent on real priorities like climate change," he added.
Pro-neutrality sentiment still holds sway among the Irish public, with an Irish Times/Ipsos poll earlier this year finding 63 per cent of voters remained in favour of it. And very few voices in Ireland are calling to join Nato. Left-winger Catherine Connolly, who won Ireland's presidential election in October by a landslide, is seen as a pacifist.
"I will be a voice for peace, a voice that builds on our policy of neutrality," she said in her victory speech.
But Russia's war in Ukraine has prompted a radical reappraisal of European defence priorities.
Two of the EU's long-standing neutral member states, Finland and Sweden, responded by joining Nato.
According to Cian Fitzgerald, a security analyst with Dublin-based Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA), Ireland must be alert to "emerging risks".
While Ireland's geography has insulated it from the worst effects of conflict in Europe, threats such as cyberwarfare and drones are not constrained by distance, he said.
"Ireland's vulnerability is due to its importance to global communications and economic systems - making it a target not only in its own right, but also as a means to target others," he said.
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