A special peace vigil will be held at Shannon Airport on Sunday 8^th November from 2pm to 3pm to mark 25 years of peaceful protests at Shannon Airport, and to commemorate the victims of war. Organised by Shannonwatch, the Peace and Neutrality Alliance and World Beyond War, the peace vigil will highlight Ireland and Shannon’s complicity on wars that have killed millions of people.

The peace gathering will acknowledge all those who work for peace and justice. Deceased peace activists who have stood at Shannon over the 25 years of protests will be remembered.

Edward Horgan of Shannonwatch said “On 11^th November 2001 a group of over a dozen peace activists from the University of Limerick Peace Society held a peace vigil at Shannon to protest against US military use of the airport. That military use has continued, and so have the protests, over the intervening 25 years.

The US military use of Shannon began when Ireland’s Taoiseach at the time, Bertie Ahern, gave them permission to use the airport for the illegal overthrow of the Afghan government without the formal approval of Dail Eireann and in breach of international laws on neutrality.

The US-led attacks on Afghanistan followed the 9/11 attacks on the US in 2001 and began less than a month later on 7^th October. This war of aggression continued for 20 years causing deaths and serious injuries of hundreds of thousands of Afghan people.

Over the years, the protests have involved a wide range of activists and groups. Since October 2023, people have gathered at Shannon to oppose the support the airport provides, directly and indirectly, for the killing of over 74,000 people in Gaza.

Barry Sweeney of World Beyond War said “The protests will continue in order to put an end to Irish government complicity in war crimes and genocide and to protest and restore genuine active Irish neutrality.”

“Since 2001, US-led wars of aggression have been causing havoc and up to ten million war related deaths across the wider Middle East, North Africa and in the Mediterranean. The US military use of Shannon airport has continued throughout these 25 years, and the airport has also been used to facilitate the CIA associate torture rendition program. More recently it is used for refuelling aircraft for US ICE deportations.”

“Shannon and Irish airspace have also been used by aircraft transporting weapons and military materials to Israel, while Israel and its leaders has been accused by international courts of committing war crimes that are now widely believed to amount to genocide. This could result in the Irish government and its officials being accused of complicity in genocide.”

Edward Horgan added “No one has been held to account so far for Irish complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity. Yet up to 100 unjustified prosecutions have been taken against peace activists who were, and still are, attempting to expose these wrongdoings.

Peace groups gathering at Shannon on November 8^th will also call for the Triple Lock that governs the deployment of Irish Defence Forces personnel overseas to be retained.

“The Irish Government is now proposing to remove the requirement for a UN mandate to send Irish soldiers on overseas missions, thereby ending the Triple Lock” said Edward Horgan. This will result in downgrading the United Nations to enable the Irish Government to join military alliances that will be unaccountable to the Irish people and unaccountable to the proper rule of international laws.”