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The Saker Indymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.
Lockdown Skeptics
Voltaire NetworkVoltaire, international edition
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International Women's Day Peace Camp at Shannon clare |
anti-war / imperialism |
news report
 Wednesday March 10, 2010 08:36 by margaretta d'arcy - women in media & entertainment
 End Irelands complicity in the oppression of Afghan Women The Women’s Peace camp Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th of March, at Shannon airport, as part of the International Women’s Day celebrations, was certainly worth while. Women and some men came from afar. They came from Kerry, Cork, Limerick, Westmeath, Dublin, Clare, Galway and Connemara, women activists, women who had never been to Shannon, women community theatre artists; plus a film crew from Tralee who had been sent there by their lecturer to make a film -- they had never been aware of Shannon with its rendition of prisoners, daily flights of American soldiers, military hardware going off in the cargo planes refuelled at Shannon, some of them would have been too young when the big demonstrations were taking place -- after all there have been 8 years of Afghan war and our involvement. The most notable change for us was the lack of garda presence, whether it is the cost of overtime, cutbacks or the go-slow in which the garda are taking part, but the most sinister current aspect of Shannon (which after all was built for civilians) is the open presence of armed members of our defence force. There was a military cargo plane on full view of all the people going off to catch planes, meet planes, arriving and departing: there they were, two Irish soldiers, guns visible and ready for use: if we had climbed over the fence in the absence of gardaí, would we have been shot? On the Sunday we had advertised ‘an action rally’ and the gardaí did turn up, but not before we had successfully blocked the narrow road to the airport. One side we completely blocked for traffic leaving the airport; on the other side, being aware of passengers’ tensions before travel, we slowed them down for a minute, then let them through. The gardaí arrived with their usual bluster, “Get off, it is for your own safety, etc -- we will arrest you.” We refused, and in the end they had to make a traffic diversion just using one lane. The traffic anyway was diverted in the other sense by the strange sight of women dressed in white burqas stretching out in the middle of the road like shadowy ghosts of the women murdered in Afghanistan by so-called friendly fire. Have our seven soldiers seconded to nato been advising nato members on which villages to attack? |
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Comments (5 of 5)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5"There was a military cargo plane on full view "
Scuse my ignorance but just wondering Is Shannon still being used as a military base? By whom? and where are the planes bound for?
Pacifist,
Yes, Shannon is still used to transport military personnel.
It is used by the American military in violation of Irish neutrality.
The destinations that the planes go are all related to the 'War on Terror' - Iraq, Afghanistan, client states for 'extraordinary rendition purposes, etc.
For more info, see the 'Related Link'
The short answer to your question, pacifist, is that yes, Shannon Airport is still being used as a military base. The primary user is the US and the airport's main military function is to support their illegal and destructive occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. It has also been used by the CIA to facilitate the kidnapping and torture of 'suspects' in their 'war on terror'.
For details see www.shannonwatch.org - the Flight Reports and News pages provide plenty of details on the scope of Shannon's war complicity.
Women's Peace Camp: Shannon Airport 6-7th March 2010
Caption: Video Id: zPJH4HzBe30 Type: Youtube Video
Women
Good video - tells the story, pity about the wind contamination though, a wind sock on the microphone would be a good idea.? The public or at least the members of the public shown are clearly empathetic to your actions which is good.? Well done to one and all.