Photo shows peace activists symbolically block the road into Shannon Airport at start of today's rally, in protest at it's use by the US military

At our Shannonwatch peace vigil today we had up to 200 people from all parts of Ireland, including North Donegal and West Cork, and a bus load from Dublin. It was a quiet and solemn occasion. Throughout the full hour of the peace vigil, peace activists read out one page each of the children killed in Gaza since 7 Oct 23, and in between each page other peace activists read out from lists of children killed from other countries, including Israeli children , children killed from other Middle East countries, and children killed by terrorists attacks in Western countries. In between each reading a peace bell was rung.

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.

The government's Consultative Forum on International Security Policy has been wrapped up, and now we await the report of the chairperson Louise Richardson. Like many others, we were of the view that representation on the panels of speakers was skewed in favour of those who are in favour of Ireland joining NATO and other military alliances. We will not be surprised if this is reflected in the report that finally emerges.

At our peace vigil today at Shannon we were delighted at the level of support from people entering and leaving the airport. Judging from their reaction, a lot of people agree with our opposition to the US military use of Shannon.

In January 2003, the Minister for Foreign Affairs Brian Cowen (Fianna Fail) confirmed that Shannon was being used by the US military, and that troops travelling on civilian aircraft are “sometimes accompanied by their personal weapons”. These are military contracted aircraft and as such are technically not classified as military aircraft.

In 2021 we still had an average of 54 overflights/month through Irish airspace by planes granted permits to carry munitions. These were almost all US military.

The average so far this year is 52. Nothing has changed.

Shannonwatch calls on the Irish government to use the opportunity of US President Joe Biden’s visit to reaffirm Ireland’s commitment to peace and international stability. It also calls on the US president to respect our commitment to non-membership of military alliances and to end the ongoing use of Shannon Airport by the US military.

Over Wednesday and Thursday, we recorded nine Omni Air Internations aircraft transporting US troops and weapons through Shannon Airport or Irish air space.

These included

• N207AX which landed at Shannon and travelled on to Bulgaria and Bahrain,
• N477AX which arrived at Shannon about 06.10 on Thursday morning, coming from Jordan and Kuwait and then flew on to US Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in North Carolina.
• N378AX, arrived at Shannon coming from the Middle East via Crete and Naples and then flew on to Norfolk naval air Station in Virginia

At our regular monthly peace vigil at Shannon we asked for United States Navy C-40A registration number 16-5829 to be inspected. It arrived last Thursday from Jacksonville Naval Air Station in Florida, stayed overnight at Shannon, and then flew on to Chania in Crete. It arrived back at Shannon at 12:28 today (Sunday 12th March) and was sitting on the tarmac at the start of our peace vigil.

US Marine Corps Hercules KC-130T arrived at Shannon Airport today at 14.45pm, coming from Al Udeid US air base in Qatar, Persian Gulf via Sofia in Bulgaria.

The KC-130T is desribed by the Naval Air System Command (NAVAIR) as multi-role, long-range, land-based tactical aircraft that "provides logistic support and air-to-air refueling to fleet operating forces."

Such breaches of Irish neutarlity are happening almost daily at Shannon Airport.

The trial of two peace activists, Edward Horgan and Dan Dowling, ended today at the Circuit Criminal Court in Parkgate Street, Dublin after a trial that lasted ten days.

Almost 6 years ago on 25th April 2017, the two peace activists were arrested at Shannon Airport and charged with causing criminal damage by writing graffiti on a US Navy aircraft. They were also charged with trespassing on the curtilage of Shannon Airport. The words “Danger Danger Do Not Fly” were written with a red marker on the engine of the warplane. It was one of two US Navy aircraft that had arrived at Shannon from Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia. They subsequently flew on to a US air base in the Persian Gulf having spent two overnights at Shannon.