A major peace rally is planned for Shannon Airport on Sunday November 12th at 2pm The gathering will mark more than two decades of weekly US military flights through the airport and Ireland’s involvement in wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere in the Middle East without the knowledge or support of the majority of Irish people.

Given the current inhumane bombardment of Gaza by Israel, the organisers are also calling on the Irish government to ensure Shannon Airport is not being used to provide US support for the war crimes being committed by Israel. Since repeated calls for inspections of US military planes have been ignored, the only way to be sure this is not happening is to stop the US military use of the airport as a matter of urgency.

The peace rally at Shannon will have one simple message for the Irish government. It is that Ireland cannot and must not be complicit in the killing of more innocent civilians.

At the peace rally, the children who have been killed due to wars in the Middle East over the past two decades will be remembered and commemorated by reading out their names and ages. This will include the Palestinian and Israeli children killed since 7th October 2023, and in particular those being killed indiscriminately in Gaza. Children killed in Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria will also be remembered, as well as children killed by terrorist attacks in Western countries. Peace activists at the rally will be invited to participate in the reading of the children’s names.

US military use of Shannon Airport may have been a contributory factor in the deaths of some of these children.

“Over the past 15 years Shannonwatch has been holding monthly peace vigils at Shannon to highlight the ongoing breaches of Irish neutrality and international laws there” said a Shannonwatch spokesperson. “Going back even further, peace activists have been organising peaceful non-violent protests at Shannon Airport since the First Gulf War in 1991. The airport was also used for the US-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and the overthrow of their governments, just over two decades ago, both leading to disastrous consequences.”

Shannonwatch is inviting people from around Ireland to come to Shannon on November 12th to call for an end to unnecessary wars of aggression. The event coincides with Remembrance Sunday, which is the day of commemoration in the United Kingdom for military and civilian servicemen and women that took part in the two World Wars. “Ireland’s future generations should not have to commemorating our participation in more wars” said the Shannonwatch spokesperson. “Our lasting legacy should be one of promoting peace”.

The Irish Government is obliged by Article 29 of Bunreacht na hÉireann to work towards promoting international peace and justice. It did so for several decades after we joined the UN in 1955, but has been failing to so in recent decades.

The Shannon Peace Vigil will be calling for peace and the ending of human rights abuses and war crimes in all conflicts including Ukraine, Israel/Palestine, Armenia, Sudan, Congo, Myanmar and elsewhere.

In this 21st century, all wars of aggression are war crimes.