Shannonwatch

At about 3.45 pm on Sunday September 1^st peace activists Margaretta Darcy and Niall Farrell were arrested in Shannon airport in the vicinity of the main runway. They were taken to Shannon Garda station where they were questioned and detained overnight. They were then brought before Limerick District Court at on 2^nd September 2013 with Judge Eugene O'Kelly presiding. About 45 minutes after the arrests of Darcy and Farrell two other individuals, including photo-journalist and human rights activist Tommy Donnellan, were arrested several miles from the scene of the airport incursion.  Tommy and his friend were later released without charge.

In a statement the Galway Alliance Against War said it wanted to highlight the use of the airport by the US.

"By allowing the US military to use Irish airspace and Shannon airport to wage wars we have become a willing accessory to mass murder. We have blood on our hands," the group said.

D'Arcy and Farrell have been charged over a similar protest at Shannon on 7^th October 2012 when the perimeter fence was breached and an incursion made on to the runway.

This afternoon two members of the Galway Alliance Against War, Margaretta D'Arcy (79) and Niall Farrell (60) blocked the runway at Shannon airport to express their opposition to the continued use of the airfield by the US military as part of its wars in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. On behalf of the two peace activists, the Galway Alliance Against War released the following statement:

"Over the past twelve years consecutive Irish governments have colluded in Washington's campaign of wars from Afghanistan to Yemen, in which up to 2 million people have perished. By allowing the US military to use Irish airspace and Shannon airport to wage these wars we have become a willing accessory to mass murder. We have blood on our hands.

Today in Galway’s city centre members of the local peace group, the Galway Alliance Against War, held a two hour vigil as part of an international protest in solidarity with Bradley Manning, to coincide with his sentencing on charges of leaking to Wikileaks information that revealed to the world US war crimes in Iraq.

Responding to the 35 year sentence handed down to Private Manning by a US court martial this afternoon, GAAW’s PRO, Niall Farrell said: “Barbaric is the word that comes to mind. But barbarism is what we have come to expect from the warmongers in Washington. They cannot stomach the truth of their crimes leaking out".

A photograph from Shannon Airport that you will not see in the mainstream media

Shannon Airport has featured in the news a number of times over the last few weeks. On August 7th a US Airways flight that left the airport with 177 passengers on board was met by emergency services at Philadelphia Airport, following a bomb threat. Passengers and crew were rushed off the aircraft to a secure area before the threat was declared “unfounded”.

A day later the media reported that around 100 people were left stranded at Shannon following a technical problem on an Aer Lingus plane. This caused the cancellation of a scheduled flight from Shannon to Boston.

Margaretta outside Ennis Court

On Wednesday 10th July Margaratta D'Arcy appeared in Ennis District Court in connection with an alleged offence of improper use of Shannon Airport last October. Some of the national media reported that she caused mayhem in the court room when she confronted the judge in a bright orange jump suit. That may have been the case from some observer's point of view, but it would have been more accurate to report that she had tried to initiate a conversation relating to the charges being brought against her, and about the wider issues of war, renditions and the grave misuse of Shannon Airport.

Here is our report on the court proceedings.

Court Report

Wednesday 10th July 2013, Ennis District Court,  Judge Patrick Durkan presiding.

Defendant : Margaretta D'Arcy (representing herself)

Margaretta D'Arcy of Galway Alliance Against War attended Ennis District Court  at 10.30am on Wednesday 10th July, to face the charge that she “did interfere with the proper use of that airport by going on the runway without permission". Below is a statement from Margaretta.

It is the improper use of Shannon Airport; a civilian airport that makes me want to have this conversation with the State. Why is Shannon Airport improper? - It is endangering civilian lives and making us complicit in war crimes. It has turned a civilian airport into a military airport.