There were four aircraft associated with US military at Shannon airport this morning, Nov 23rd, being protected (not very successfully) by Gardai, Irish Defence Forces armed patrol, and airport security police. 

US Navy Boeing C-40A number 16-8980 landed at Shannon on Friday 21 Nov about 23.00. coming from Portsmouth, New Hampshire (PSM). It spent the overnight at Shannon on 21 and 22 Nov and took off about 09.20 on 23 Nov heading towards the Middle East via Athens.

A US Air Force Boeing C-40B also known as US Air Force 2, number 01-0040, landed at Shannon about 01.25, coming from Tampa Florida. It had the call sign SAM118. It took off about 03.05 and has since landed at Doha UAE.

A US Navy Hercules C-130 number 16-5314 landed at about 02.36 coming from Joint Air Base McGuire New Jersey with a refuelling stop at Keflavik in Iceland.  

Omni Air N486AX, on contract to US military, landed at about 08.55 coming from Biggs US Army Airfield El Paso in Texas. It was likely to be transporting about 200 armed US soldiers to the Middle East.

The first of these, the C-40A, was (allegedly) involved in a non-violent peace action at Shannon on Saturday, 22 Nov. Media reports said that three people were arrested after a van gained access to an "unauthorised area" at Shannon Airport. At the time of writing this, it is known if or when they will be charged. But what is known is that the authorities go to great lengths to protect US military planes at Shannon, while the government refuses to say what is on them and refuses to allow inspections to take place. At the same time, people who refuse to accept this shameful practice and who take action are arrested.

The crimes against humanity and the war crimes facilitated by Shannon are condoned by the authorities while peace activists are impeded, arrested and charged.

The statement of the activists who took the action on Saturday (the Boeing 3) are available here.