Huge Shannon protest opposes Ireland’s complicity

There were scuffles at a major national protest at Shannon Airport on Saturday as a Garda riot squad confronted a demonstration against the airport’s servicing of NATO warplanes and the illegal transport of munitions to the Middle East and other war zones.

Despite Ireland’s supposed neutrality and the coalition government’s criticisms of the ongoing Israeli genocide. a recent investigation by ‘The Ditch’ website has exposed the use of Irish airspace as a route for US transports in support of Israel’s bombing campaigns in Palestine and Lebanon.

A number of republican activists from all over Ireland took part in the event at Shannon, joining a crowd of thousands to gather at roundabouts around the airport. However, they were harassed by a large amount of Gardaí and Special Branch personnel, and two people were arrested.

Cairde Palestine Belfast and Mothers Against Genocide helped organise the event. Politicians who attended the protest included People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett and Sinn Féin’s Mairéad Farrell.

Speaking afterwards, Mr Boyd Barrett said the turnout was “incredible” with people from across the country “coming together to take bold action where the government has failed—namely, to end our nation’s complicity.”

He said the reports showed that “it is more urgent than ever” to insist that Irish airports and airspace “no longer accommodate warmongers”.

“[Taoiseach Simon] Harris is speaking out of both sides of his mouth; while he claims to be outraged by the attacks on UN peacekeepers, the reality is that he has enabled these acts by allowing weapons destined for the IOF to pass through Ireland,” he said.

Anti-Imperialist Action Ireland praised the “staunch display” that no NATO power should have a place in Ireland, “especially in using the airport in Shannon for the genocidal attacks in Palestine and Lebanon”.

“The war in Palestine and Lebanon and the ongoing illegal occupation of Ireland by Britain is waking a new generation up to the need for National liberation,” they added.

“The spontaneous anger of the people must now be organised into a mass people’s movement across the country to confront and defeat imperialism.”

UN peacekeepers stationed in southern Lebanon, including personnel from the 26 County Army, have recently come under heavy attack by Israeli tanks, with fifteen of them injured.

Last week, the President of Ireland and subsequently the Dublin government expressed concern for the Irish soldiers who have been told by Israel to abandon their posts. But the coalition’s empty words have yet to translate into any significant repercussions for Israel, as it still struggles to pass the anodyne six-year-old ‘Occupied Territories’ bill, which includes sanctions only against illegal settlements of Palestinian areas.

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has again expressed her concern at the ongoing atrocities.

“The international community must draw the line,” she said. “The only way to stop Israel’s onslaught on the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples is to end its impunity, to hold Israel to account, to exert pressure so that a ceasefire is the only option.

“The arming and funding of Israel’s war machine must stop. The Irish government must make this absolutely clear to the EU, Britain and the United States. It is time for a forthright, clear and unambiguous stance from the Irish government on this matter.”

Urgent Appeal