At least 1,000 armed US soldiers are likely to have passed through Shannon Airport over a 24 hour period covering Friday and Saturday last, and several hundred more probably passed through Irish airspace, mainly to and from the Middle East. All were on Omni Air flights on contract to the US military, and there may well have been more on other airlines. Shannon Airport is being used to support multiple wars in the Middle East and in Ukraine.
We've put together a list of some of the US military and military contracted aircraft landing at Shannon Airport or travelling through Irish airspace between 7th October 2023 and 17th March (St Patrick's Day). Most of them were going to or from the Middle East.
Over 70 aircraft are listed, but this is unlikely to be the full list.
Shannon Airport and Irish airspace are being used almost on a daily basis to support US military involvement in wars in Ukraine, the Middle East and Africa. By permitting these flights, Ireland is also supporting the war crimes and genocide by Israel against the Palestinian people. The real extent of our complicity in what's happening in Gaza is unknown however, because most US military flights that land in Israel do not show up as landing there.
A sit-in protest was held inside Ireland's Shannon Airport this morning, where activists holding signs read a statement followed by a reading of the names of children killed in the conflict in Gaza.
STATEMENT: Good Friday is not the time for good people to be silent.
All around Ireland, ordinary people like us are horrified at what is being done to the Palestinian people. We have demonstrated, lobbied, fundraised, protested, petitioned, and taken direct action in an attempt to convince those who represent us to take all the measures available to stop this genocide. This has not happened. Despite some strong rhetoric, we’ve seen little action.
On March 10th Dublin for Gaza and Action for Palestine Ireland engaged in a peaceful protest in the terminal building at Shannon Airport to demand that no US weapons be transported to Israel through Ireland. In doing so they highlighted the fact that at least four US warplanes travelling from Tel Aviv have landed at Shannon.
There were at least 4 US military aircraft at Shannon today. Two US Air Force Hercules C140H aircraft landed last Tuesday 27th February coming from Ramstein US air base in Germany. They remained at Shannon until today. Their registration numbers were 89-9106 and 92-3023. They both took off from Shannon at about 11.40am this morning and then flew to RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk where they spent a few hours before flying on north towards Iceland.
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.
