Foreign policy must also have regard to the protection of national interests, especially in time of war when passions are heightened. People do not forget attitudes taken in time of war. I do not pretend that the Shannon decision is a comfortable one. The dilemma was that we were forced in some degree to take sides, either to interpret our neutrality flexibly in a manner that accommodated the US or to interpret it rigidly in a manner that was bound to receive a hostile interpretation in the US. While the majority of the Irish public would have strongly preferred no resort to war, it has happened. There was little more we could have done to prevent it and nothing we can do to stop it now that it has started.