{"id":352880,"date":"2026-03-18T16:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T16:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/352880\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T16:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T16:52:10","slug":"td-calls-on-ireland-to-join-antarctic-treaties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/352880\/","title":{"rendered":"TD calls on Ireland to join Antarctic treaties"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Fianna Fail TD has called for Ireland to formally recognise that Antarctica should only be used for peaceful purposes.<\/p>\n<p>Malcolm Byrne introduced a bill to the Dail on Wednesday which would see Ireland become the 59th nation to accede to the Antarctic Treaty System.<\/p>\n<p>In 1959, the Antarctic Treaty enshrined the territory as a scientific preserve used only for peaceful purposes.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773849904890_2.jpg--.jpg\" width=\"640\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Joining the Antarctic Treaty System would mean Ireland formally recognises the Southern Continent should only be used for peaceful purposes, and would allow Irish researchers to take part in joint projects there.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Byrne said Ireland is \u201cthe most populous member state of the European Union that is not in membership\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>He said the country has a \u201clong and rich history and association with the Antarctic and Antarctic exploration.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He outlined how Edward Bransfield, from County Cork, had \u201cthe first verified sighting of Antarctica recorded in 1820\u201d, and how Francis Crozier, from County Down, \u201ccarried out much of the mapping of Antarctica\u201d during the 19th century.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773849904890_1.jpg--.jpg\" width=\"640\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>He said: \u201cI think people in this house, and indeed around the country, would be very familiar with the stories of Tom Crean and indeed, Ernest Shackleton.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIncredible individuals from the era of exploration, and their stories continue to inspire.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Joining the treaty system would enable \u201ca new generation of researchers\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of research that\u2019s been done in stations in the Antarctic, particularly around areas of climate, astronomy and marine biology.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added: \u201cAnd it would allow Ireland to formally say \u2018we believe that the Southern Continent should only be used for peaceful purposes and should never be exploited, particularly when it comes to the risk of it being exploited for fossil fuels\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Fianna Fail TD has called for Ireland to formally recognise that Antarctica should only be used for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352881,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[36948,246,61,60,13397,43,1650],"class_list":["post-352880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-antarctic","tag-environment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-malcolm-byrne","tag-news","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}