Yesterday (October 9th) there were at least 3 US warplanes at Shannon Airport.

US Navy Hercules C130J arrived 2 days ago at about 04.30am coming from Naval Air Station New Orleans, Louisiana. It stayed two overnights and took off again today 9 Oct. about 12.00 noon heading SE towards the Middle East.

US Navy C40 number 16-5831 arrived about 02.26am coming from the same Naval Air Station New Orleans, Louisiana. Both of these aircraft are designed and equipped to transport US military cargo or US troops.

Shannonwatch will hold their monthly peace vigil at Shannon Airport on Sunday October 13th at 2pm. Please join us at the usual location (small roundabout on the way into the airport) to demand that the US use of the airport is ended immediately.

The use of the airport by the US military is unacceptable given the supply of weapons to Israel from the US. We know that some of those weapons have gone through Irish airspace, and that US military and diplomatic flights to Israel pass through Shannon. And we know that those flights are never inspected.

Over a five day period, Omni Air aircraft registration number N342AX made three refuelling stops at Shannon Airport. On 20th September it landed at about 11.20am at Shannon, coming from Baltimore in the US. It took off again about 14.15 and flew on to Kuwait in the Persian Gulf. From there it also flew on to an airport in north-west India near the border with Pakistan and the disputed Kashmir region.

At a rally outside Shannon Airport on September 8^th Shannonwatch and the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) presented a letter to An Garda Siochana calling on them to inspect US military and military contracted aircraft using Shannon Airport.

Shannonwatch are appalled by reports that flights carrying munitions to Israel have been flying through Irish airspace since October 2023, and call for decisive action from the government to end Irish complicity in the supply of weapons being used to murder Palestinians.

Details published by The Ditch indicate that on at least six occasions Ireland’s weak oversight policies were breached by cargo airlines carrying detonators, missile safety and arming devices, explosives that propel rounds of ammunition from firearms, and other munitions of war.

Join Shannonwatch and the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign for a National Mobilisation at Shannon Airport on Sunday 8th September, between 2pm and 3.30pm, to say ‘Stop Arming Israel – No weapons or military flights to Israel through Shannon!’

Ten months into Apartheid Israel’s genocide in Gaza and brutality in the West Bank, the US and other states continue to supply weapons, ammunition and other forms of support to Israel – making them directly complicit in these heinous crimes against humanity. The Irish government steadfastly refuses to inspect US warplanes that stop at Shannon Airport or otherwise use Irish airspace. This is unconscionable!

Ireland was still facilitating war and war crimes at Shannon Airport last week. On Thursday August 15th a US Navy Hercules C-130T landed at about 18.20 coming from Joint Base McGuire–Dix–Lakehurst near New York. Its registration number is 16-4998.

Image source: here (Creative Commons license)

Two days earlier, on August 13th, another US Navy C130T registration 16-5349 landed at Shannon at about 11.12am coming from Brussels. On August 9th it was patrolling in the Persian Gulf with landings in Bahrain and UAE. And on August 11th it flew from Bahrain to Brussels via a refuelling stop at Chania in Crete. 

Peace activists have started to hold vigils at Shannon Airport every weekend for the months of July and August, with the aim of highlighting and challenging the Irish government’s role in assisting the United States military in its overseas wars, and the war on Gaza in particular, by allowing military aircraft to transit and transport weaponry through Shannon. All are welcome to participate.

The vigils are being held from 6am each SAturday and Sunday morning, with the organisers keen to have a visible presence as passengers disembark from international flights and leave the airport.

At Shannon today the Gardai were asked to search and investigate a US Air Force Boeing C40 registration 02-0042 that was at Shannon Airport, having come from Tel Aviv in Israel. The request was made of the Inspector in Charge at the barricades that blocked our access to the airport, and it was made on the basis that the US is assisting Israel with genocide against the Palestinian people. The inspector said he acknowledged the request, but did not say whether the aircraft would be searched or investigated.

Shannon Airport was awash with US Army personnel this morning (May 6th), as two plane loads of troops sat around the duty free waiting to be brought home.

Omni Air International flight OAE574 / OY574 left Shannon with the first plane load of troops at 6 minutes past midday, on its way to Hunter Air Force Base in Savannah, Georgia. It had also been at Shannon yesterday, arriving at around 21.10 and leaving at 23.40.