Shannonwatch fully supports calls to the participants in the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference to be held in Scotland from November 1st to 12th to stop excluding military pollution from climate agreements.

Global military expenditure rose to almost US $2 trillion in 2020. The scale of the environmental destruction this causes means there is an urgent need for the military to be included in commitments by states to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. But reducing emissions should not be the sole aim, as focusing only on transitioning the military to non-fossil fuel technology without addressing the whole life environmental cost of military technology and of military activities, overlooks the wider impact of military activities on the environment.

Last Sunday 3rd Oct we had two Dutch NATO warships visiting Irish neutral ports.

Jehan Ashmore wrote in AFLOAT:

"The Royal Netherlands Navy's largest ship HNMLS Karel Doorman, displacing 27,800 tonnes, arrived in Cork Harbour this afternoon to berth at Cobh, having sailed from Greenock, Scotland."

We've teamed up with Uplift to petition an Taoiseach Micheál Martin and teh Minister for Foreign Affairs, Simon Coveney to Stop U.S. Military use of Shannon Airport.

The message is simple: stop granting permission for US military and military contracted aircraft, including troop carriers, to land in Shannon Airport.

Please help us gather as many signatures as possible. Share the link: its https://my.uplift.ie/petitions/stop-u-s-military-use-of-shannon-airport. 

Image source: Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion (Creative Commons license)

As the crow flies, Shannon Airport is over 6,000 km from Afghanistan A lot of people have flown between the two places over the last 20 years though, with many probably not knowing why they were going there or what they would be doing when they got there. But they all had guns, so one of the few things they knew that they could do was kill people.

For the entire illegal, ill-fated and damaging occupation of Afghanistan by the US and its allies, Shannon Airport has facilitated the steady flow of armed invaders to the country.

As Afghanistan returns to Taliban control after 20 years of US occupation, it’s worth looking at some of the costs of that occupation. And it’s also worth bearing in mind that Ireland provided logistical support for what has turned out to be an unmitigated disaster for the people of Afghanistan, a staggering waste of money that could have been spent on counteracting poverty and hunger globally, and a bonanza for the arms industry. 

We've had quite a flurry of US air Force traffic at Shannon in the past few days. But of course the government or the Department of Foreign Affairs won't explain why there were there, when the flights were authorised, or whether or not they were inspected to ensure there were no weapons on board.

Shannonwatch welcomes calls for Ireland to do more to resettle and provide international protection for people fleeing from Afghanistan. It also calls on the government to urgently assess its role in creating the conditions leading to the current catastrophic situation there. In particular, there is an urgent need to assess and end the use of Shannon Airport by the US military, in light of what the twenty-year occupation of Afghanistan has led to.

“Ireland has been complicit in the US led twenty-year war against Afghanistan by not only allowing US military to use Shannon Airport but by inviting the US Government to do so” said Shannonwatch spokesperson Edward Horgan. “Even if we had never been a neutral country we should not allow any military forces to use Irish territory to wage illegal and unjustified wars. The US military use of Shannon should be ended immediately as the USA is still engaged in unjustified military actions in Syria, Yemen, Somalia and elsewhere.”

In recent weeks some of the world's largest cargo planes have flown from Afghanistan to the US via Shannon. Three Antonov AN-124's, with serial numbers UR-82029, UR-82008 and UR-82007 were almost certainly carrying heavy loads of military equipment, being brought home as the US abandon the Afghan people to the Taliban. Some of them even stayed overnight at Shannon before flying on to Orlando, Florida.

Our friends the Raging Grannies invite everyone who feels as they do (rage, humiliation and emotional abuse) to confront Eamon Ryan, Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, who is allowing young American soldiers to travel through Shannon Airport to fight in wars they know nothing about.

On Wednesday the 7^th of July from 12 noon, they will be at the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, Leeson Lane, Dublin 2, DO2 TR60 to do that. Join them if you can for as little or as long as you want. 

On Wednesday July 7^th Ireland’s Raging Grannies will gather outside the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport to demand that the Minister, Eamon Ryan, stop authorising the daily transit of weapons through Shannon Airport by the US military. They are asking the public to join their colourful protest at the department in Leeson St, Dublin from 12 noon onwards.

The Raging Grannies also plan to make themselves heard at the Department of Foreign Affairs which is authorising the use of Shannon by other US military planes.

Omni Air N234AX US troop carrier arrived at Shannon on Tuesday night (June 29th) at 11pm for refuelling, coming from Al Udeid air base in Qatar and Kuwait in the previous few days. It took off again at 2am on Wednesday morning on its way to Biggs air base in El Paso Texas via Baltimore Washington.

Photo taken at Shannon on a previous refueling stop last year.