Back at our October 12^th peace vigil at Shannon which was preceded by music and a Neutrality Hedge School organised by our friends from around Co. Clare, we saw two US Navy Hercules C-130's landing at Shannon Airport.

The first, with registration 16-5314, landed at about 12.50.

The second, 16-5159, landed just over an hour later at about 14.02.

As reported at the time, we asked the Gardai to inspect the C-130's. After much insistence by the inspector we spoke to that that the planes had permission to be at Shannon (which is a very different matter to them being compliant with national and international laws), they agreed to “investigate” the aircraft and to send us a written report.

Here's what we received from the inspector.

The derisory response is completely dismissive of the basis given for the request to inspect the planes, which included the US military’s active support for war crimes and genocide in Gaza. It just says "Gardai were not satisfied that any offence was being committed and hence did not see it necessary to search this plane".

Shannonwatch responded to the inspector. In our response we pointed out that Section 7 of the Garda Siochana Act 2005 states that the functions of An Garda Siochana include:

• Protecting life and property
• Vindicating the human rights of each individual
• Preventing crime, and
• Bringing criminals to justice, including by detecting and investigating crime.

Our response noted that genocide and complicity in genocide are the most serious of crimes and are contrary to the Genocide Convention 1948 and the Irish 1973 Genocide Act.

In the Shannonwatch letter we also pointed out that “if citizens are aware that serious crime are being committed, and no appropriate actions are being taken by the appropriate authorities to prevent these crimes, or to prevent complicity in these crimes, then citizens have moral, human rights and legitimate duties to take appropriate actions to vindicate the human right to life of those being killed by war crimes and genocide”.

Shannonwatch members have been reporting Irish complicity in war crimes and other breaches of Irish and international laws resulting from the US military use of Shannon Airport for over 25 years. We have made multiple requests to An Garda Siochana and to the Irish government to take action to prevent such complicity.

Since October 7^th 2023, war crimes committed in Gaza have been part of a systematic policy of genocide against the Palestinian people. And since that date, over 600 flights associated with the US military have been refueled at Shannon, most of them on their way to or from the Middle East. The Gardai have steadfastly refused to inspect any of them, despite the oath they all took that obliges them to “faithfully discharge the duties of a member of the Garda Siochana with fairness, integrity, regard for human rights, diligence and impartiality, upholding the Constitution and the laws and according equal respect to all people.

Little respect is being shown for the lives of the people in Gaza these days at Shannon Airport..

We did get a further correspondence from the Garda inspector in response to our letter. It said that the Policing, Security and Community Safety Act 2024 requires him to treat our correspondence as being “a complaint within the meaning of that legislation”, and places a statutory obligation on him to notify Fiosru – Office of the Police Ombudsman of the complaint.

That was all in October. We are still awaiting contact from Fiosru.