The covert use of Shannon Airport by the US military is once again excalating, based on official statistics from the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. This is borne out by our own monitoring of the airport.

Yesterday evening (Saturday May 11th) at 8pm there were no civilian aircraft delivering or taking on civilian passengers at the airport. There were however 3 US warplanes. One was a US Marine Corps Hercules KC130J with mid air refuelling capacity number OH 16-9229, and this was accompanied by a smaller US Marine Corps executive jet, number VM 16-6767 Cesna UC-35D Citation Encore. These two aircraft were being protected by an Irish army patrol, and their crews and military passengers were most likely staying overnight in a local hotel. There was also an Omni Air International troop carrier, registration N225AX which is capable of carrying up to 300 armed US troops.

At Shannon Airport on May 7th we photographed these two US military aircraft.

One was a Hercules C130H number 92-3085, which arrived on 6th May, stayed overnight, and took off at 09.22am heading East towards Europe or Middle East.

The other was a US Air force C-146A Wolfhound.

Earlier this week, the two Veterans for Peace activists Tarak Kauff and Ken Mayers unfurled their banner on the carriageway approaching Shannon Airport.

On March 27th a peace vigil was held at Limerick prison for Us Veterans for Peace Tarak Kauff and Ken Mayers. They are displaying the larger version of the banner that Ken and Tarak took into Shannon Airport on March 17th when they attempted to inspect and investigate a US military contracted plane.

Press Conference - Buswell's Hotel Dublin, 11am Friday, March 15th, 11am

Public Meeting - Connolly Books, 43 Essex St E, Temple Bar, Friday March 15th, 7pm

Protest - Shannon Airport St Patrick's Day Sunday March 17th, 2pm

Why? Because up to one million [1,000,000] children have died due to US-led wars in the Middle East since 1991

Six US Veterans For Peace (VFP), including two Iraq combat veterans will be in Ireland from March 14th to the 20th. They will be speaking publicly about the proliferation of US wars and of the disrespect shown by the US military for Ireland's traditional neutrality.

The last few months has seen ongoing refusals by government Ministers to answer about the US military use of Shannon. Three ministers, Simon Coveney (Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade), Shane Ross (Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport) and Charlie Flanagan (Minister for Justice and Equality) have all shown clearly that they intend to avoid providing proper information to their fellow TDs and those of us in civil society who demand answers. Here's a sample of what we've got from them since October.

At our Shannonwatch peace vigil today we displayed a beautiful banner produced by IPSC with artwork in memory of some of the Palestinian children who have been killed in Gaza. It was an appropriate banner, given all the children killed by wars facilitated by Shannon Airport.

The following letter from Shannonwatch's Edward Horgan was published in today's Irish Independent.

The appalling situation in Yemen is getting worse. According to the United Nations 10,000 people - two-thirds of them civilians, including thousands of children, have been killed and 55,000 injured.

On 9th August a bus carrying children to a summer school was hit by a Saudi air strike in the town of Dahyan in northern Yemen. At least 47 civilians including 29 children, all under 15 years of age, were killed. Col Turki al-Malki spokesman for the US backed Saudi dominated coalition said the attack was "a legitimate military action, conducted in conformity with international humanitarian law".

At Shannon Airport at 3.30 pm this evening a US warplane was being refuelled and seemed to be getting some repairs done. All part of Ireland's participation in totally unjustified wars in the Middle East.

It comes as little surprise that the latest financial report for Shannon Airport makes no mention of the US military use of the facility. The report tells us that the overall number of passengers in 2017 was 1,751 million, which means that the official number of US troop that passed through the airport, 60,968, represents 3.5% of its overall passenger business. But the company running one of the country's main airports couldn't possibly mention this massive ongoing breach of Irish neutrality.

Shannon Airport is one of the business units of the Shannon Group. This is a commercial semi-state company established in September 2014. The other business units are Shannon Heritage, the International Aviation Services Centre (IASC) and Shannon Commercial Enterprises DAC, trading as Shannon Commercial Properties. Together they are "focused on delivering economic benefits for the West of Ireland and the wider national economy" (from the Shannon Group website).