Its great that so many of us here in Ireland can enjoy Easter. Not so for many people across the Middle East at present. Over 100 people died yesterday in a terrorist attack on a convoy of busses trying to evacuate civilians from two towns held by the Syrian Government near Aleppo. The victims were mainly women and children and many were injured people in the process of being transferred to hospitals in Aleppo. The rebels who launched this suicide attack are most likely from one of the rebel groups supported and armed by the US and Turkey.

In an article published in the Irish Times on April 8th, the paper's former foreign correspondent Patrick Smith claimed that the concept of neutrality was obsolete for Ireland. In a response published on April 14th John Maguire outlines why that is not the case. We reprint his excellent letter in full here.

In February of this year Shannonwatch lodged a Freedom of Information (FOI) request for correspondence and records relating to a sample 12 US military contracted flights that landed at Shannon or flew through Irish airspace in October 2016. The flights were classified as civilian rather than military but they had US military charter call signs, and were operated by airlines that have "indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity" contracts to provide international airlift services to the US military (a full list of companies with contracts to provide international airlift services to the US military is available here). Four of the flights in the FOI request were Atlas Air flights; four were by MN Airlines LLC, operating as Sun Country Airlines; two were operated by Omni Air International; one by National Air Cargo; and one was a UPS Airlines flight.

In answer to a parliamentary question from Clare Daly TD, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Charlie Flanagan has claimed that arrangements for the regulation of activity by foreign military aircraft at Irish airports and in Irish airspace are kept under ongoing review. There is little evidence of any review of the daily overflights and landings by the US military. But in light of the current ramping up of military aggression around the world by the US, including the illegal and counterproductive air strikes in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, it is now time for an urgent review of our support for their military aggression.

A US warship the USS Donald Cook has arrived in Cobh harbour today Tuesday 21^st March. It is likely that it will be refuelled while in Cobh, but It is no more welcome in an Irish port, than the US war planes that are being refuelled at Shannon airport on a daily basis.

The USS Donald Cook is a destroyer, equipped with the following weapons (and probably much more besides).

olm Roddy was "up for mention" at Ennis District Court today as a result of efforts by himself and Dave Donnellan to search two US military aircraft at Shannon Airport almost one year ago. Judge Durcan, who last November had struck out the charges against Colm Roddy had initially forgotten his previous dismissal of these charges, and then when he remembered, sought more information from the prosecution about the DPP's decision to overturn Judge Durcan's ruling in November. Inspector Kennedy was not in court and the prosecuting inspector knww nothing of te case, so the matter was adjourned once again to Wed 26th April.

Full report from our Court correspondent ...

On Friday, St Patrick's Day, Taoiseach Enda Kenny will pay homage to the man he called racist last year, Donald Trump.

When they meet there will be no mention of our neutrality, or the millions of mwn, women and children we have helped Trump's predecessors to kill in the Middle East.

No mention of the continued use of Shannon to kill and main.

Our Peace Vigil at Shannon today was a windy affair but Spring was in the air, so the joys of the season should have been evident. However Shannonwatch and other NGO research has revealed that war related deaths of children in the Middle East since the 1991 First Gulf War may have amounted to up to one million children dead. Since we in Ireland have been partly complicit in these deaths as a result of US military use of Shannon Airport we had started a project to try and put names on as many of these children who have died as possible. To us and of course to their families these children's deaths are not just "collateral damage".

From our Court Correspondent

This case arises as a result of a communicative peace activist protest action taken by Colm Roddy and Dave Donnelan on 25 May 2016, when they entered Shannon airport to search two US military aircraft, which they felt legally and morally obliged to search, because Gardai at Shannon airport have been directed by the Irish Government not to search or investigate any US military aircraft at Shannon airport.

Last night (Jan 24th) was a busy night for warplanes at Shannon Airport. At 6pm a Shannonwatch member photographed a Miami Air aircraft that may have been trying to disguise its presence at there, or at least disguise the fact that it is on contract to the US military.

The aircraft number was N739MA. It took off from Pease Air Force Base in the USA and landed at Shannon on Monday at 08:42 using a civilian call sign BSK171. It took off from Shannon again at 10:05 then flew on towards Europe and landed at Chania airport in Crete, this time using a US military call sign and then headed for Muwaffaq Salti Airbase, near Al Azraq, Jordan.