The following talk was given by Edward Horgan of Shannonwatch  to the 2026 Roger Casement Summer School at Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin on May 16th.

Hello all, and thanks to the Roger Casement Summer School for inviting me to participate in this event.

In my preparation for this I read a newly published book by Rory Carroll. Its title is A REBEL AND A TRAITOR. In my view it is unduly critical towards Casement but it does paint an interesting historical picture. I grew up a few miles from Banna Strand, so I always had a keen interest in the story of Roger Casement.

I will begin with a couple of quotes:

Edmund Burke is credited with saying: "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing"; I disagree with Burke. In my view good people don’t stand idly by and do nothing while evil is being perpetrated. Whatever you do in the face of evil don’t do nothing.

This letter by Edward Horgan of Shannonwatch was published in the Irish Daily Mail on 30 Apr.

A recent UN report found that more than 38,000 women and girls were killed in Gaza between October 2023 and December 2025. This figure does not include those buried under rubble, and deaths caused by hunger, diseases, and the destruction of vital infrastructure.

This event is supported by Shannonwatch. 

Event:  To remember Hind Rajab, the five year-old girl who was killed by Israeli soldiers in Gaza on January 29^th 2024

Where:  The Peace Roundabout at Shannon Airport.

When:  1-2pm, May 3^rd 2026, which would have been Hind’s eighth birthday

In the midst of ongoing protests around the country, we held our monthly protest in opposition to the US military's us of Shannon airport today. The nationwide protests have been mostly about rising fuel prices, which are inextricably linked to the illegal US/Israeli war on Iran. More generally the impact of fuel prices on all our lives has a lot to do with the ongoing instability caused by war and the over-reliance on fossil fuels.

On March 13th, the Center for Strategic and International Studies estimated that the economic cost to the US of the illegal war on Iran was running at $16.5 billion. And that was only after 12 days. In 2025, the Costs of War project at Brown University reported that from 2001 to 2019, the US spent over $2 trillion on the war in Afghanistan, and from 2003 to 2023 it spent and obligated over $2.89 trillion on the wars in Iraq and Syria.

These are all wars that Ireland supported by making Shannon Airport available to the US military since 2001.

Following restrictions imposed by Spain, France and Italy on US linked aircraft using their airspace and bases, Shannonwatch call on the Irish government to take similar action without delay. As a neutral country, the granting of permission to US military flights to land at Shannon or to fly through Irish airspace has become even more indefensible given the illegality of the US actions in Iran.

On Tuesday (March 31^st) Shannonwatch logged no fewer than seven flights associated with the US military at Shannon or passing through Irish airspace. These included six aircraft on contract to the US military, all likely to be carrying armed troops or cargo, and a US Air Force Gulfstream V that travelled through Irish airspace about 21.40, coming from Camp Springs Air Base in Washington.

Lelia Doolan is encouraging us all to stand up (& walk) for peace. Join us from 31st March.

At 91 years, Lelia has seen too much of the devastation caused by wars, apartheid and genocide. She is donning her (ethically sourced!)  walking shoes to blaze a trail from Shannon Airport to Dáil Éireann.

Joined by community groups and peace activists along the old road to Dublin, they will express the frustration, shame and anger felt by the many Irish stalwarts who have for over 30 years, (since 1981!), regularly protested at Shannon at the use of the airport by US military planes - whose personnel and cargos the Irish government refuses to inspect. 

Update from Court (March 25th) for the Boeing 3

All three actionists had their sign-on days reduced from 3 to 1 a week. Furthermore the charges of trespass were withdrawn and replaced with a charge of section 47 of the Air Traffic Control Act. Next court date will be the 6th of may for the hand over of the book of evidence.

As the Irish government seems more determined than ever to allow the US military use Shannon Airport, it's important to acknowledge and support the activists who have taken action to try to highlight and end it over the last few years. They are being dragged through the courts while nothing is done by the authorities to investigate the complicity of the US military/diplomatic aircraft in illegal wars, crimes against humanity and genocide.

In the last couple of days, we’ve had the Taoiseach Michéal Martin saying Shannon Airport is not being used by US planes involved in the bombing of Iran, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee saying the same about Irish airspace.

Both are in the US at present. And the last thing they will do is criticise the Trump regime, even though they know it started an illegal, unnecessary and brutal war against Iran.

At least 153 people, most of whom were children, were killed in an airstrike on a school in Iran yesterday. The children who were brutally murdered were in the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ elementary school in Minab, and the ones responsible for their murder were the military forces of the US and Israel.

On the same day at 08.57, a US Navy air logistics flight left Shannon on its way to an air base in Sigonella, Sicily. It had arrived just after midnight on Thursday from Portsmouth International Airport. This is a joint civil and military use airport near Pease in New Hampshire.

Three days after reporting to the Gardai that there was another suspected ICE flight on the ground at Shannon Airport, we are still waiting for them to provide any information on what they did in response to our request to inspect the plane.

As reported here by journalist Gillian Brockell, the aircraft, a Gulfstream V operated by ICE charter Journey Aviation  with registration N588TN, left the ICE hub of Mesa, AZ, at 2:28 am local time Wednesday, and landed at Shannon Airport eight and a half hours later. Half an hour before it landed, we called the Gardai at Shannon to alert them.