Shannon Blockade Dec 6th


     Look up www.irishantiwar.org/... or  www.indymedia.ie for reports with photos.
      Today December 6th the Irish antiwar movement carried out its blockade of Shannon airport. The Irish antiwar movement had estimated that 100,000 US soldiers came through Shannon since Jan 03, well over half the total amount of US soldiers in Iraq.  This was actually an underestimate !  In the Irish Times of Saturday Dec 6 a story read that 115,000 US troops have used the airport in return for $14 million blood money to the state.  So half the 40 - 50,000 deaths in Iraqs have been directly facilitated by Shannon airport, a sombering thought. Still no official figures for armaments (besides 115,000 M-16 machine guns and handguns) and bombs going through the airport though.  Goodbye neutrality, Goodbye Shannon civilian airport. Hello Shannon Air Force Base.

   Buses left city centre at 9:30. The IAWM arranged one, the Grassroots network another, and UCD SU another. The atmosphere was fairly good humoured but the organisers were fairly cautious about getting a list of occupants on each bus in case anyone got arrested or otherwise delayed. The buses stopped for food about 12 in Borris-on-ossary and continued on. Leaflets with legal support contact details and what was expected and not expected of participants were distributed.   On the border of Co.Limerick and Co.Clare, Ciaron O'Reilly, a " Swords into ploughshares " activist and other members of the Catholic Worker Five had a protest in the central reservation of the road. The CW5 are banned from Co. Clare after their hatchet disarmament action early in the year and are still being dragged through the courts.

Bunratty Standoff - Sticks of Mass destruction confiscated.

    At Bunratty castle Co. Clare 3 Garda Siochana Transit Vans and about 30 Gardai stopped the buses. 10 ! Gardai boarded the bus. Firstly they hassled the driver for his license. Then they searched the overhead shelves for placards and took them outside. Peoples bags were searched. One person even had their diary read, allegedly "searching for blades" between the each page. When it was pointed out to said Garda that he could just flick through the pages instead of reading them he got a bit irate.
The storage bins at the sides and back of the bus were opened and all banners removed. Gardai then started ripping the sticks used to hold up the banners out, destroying some of them, until people got off the bus and removed them less destructively for them. All the sticks, light lathes and bamboo sticks were put in a pile at the side of the road.  The protesters were told by Inspector Fitzmorris that they were being confiscated under the "possession of Firearms and weapons act" .  When the Garda were informed that they should be inspecting military cargo used to blow up people in Shannon thereby violating the constitution instead of wrecking placards, they had "no comment".  After about 15 minutes the buses moved on. The gardai were asked for a recipt for the stolen goods and the protesters told they could retrieve them from Shannon Garda station of collect them at the same point on the way back. But no one could be bothered.

Destination Shannon

On the way to the meeting point the buses passed a roundabout with 30 Gardai ! and 10 riot control police in full gear of helmets, shin, elbow, shoulder pads, and clear plastic shields guarding the 2nd and 3rd exits of the roundabout. There was no blye flu today.
    The buses stopped at a shopping centre whose retailer is LIDL about a mile from Shannon airport. About 6 buses from around the country were there plus people with their own transport. It seemed that only those that had driven there themselves still had placards on sticks. The atmosphere was fairly jovial with one man dressed as an aeroplane with photos of Bertie on the sings, one lady with orange overalls and chains with a placard " Guilty of complicity" and many homemade placards and Socialist Party banners. The lack of any Green party or labour party placards was striking, since these parties have previously hopped on the antiwar bandwagon. At about 2:30 about 400 marchers set off towards the airport. They were flanked on both sides by riot police and some sinister looking Garda transit vans with blacked out windows. 4 horse mounted gardai took up the front and tried to dictate the pace but the marchers took it slowly. Chants included:
Who let the bombs out, Bush, Bertie and Blair.
Can you hear us in the Dail, No US warplanes on our soil.
Hail hail USA how many kids did you kill today. (well 9 in Afghanistan on Fri / Sat for starters )
1,2,3,4 we don't want your bloody war, 5,6,7,8 this is not a US state.
George Bush we know you, your daddy was a killer too.
George Bush you can't hide, we charge you with genocide.
etc.
  When they got close to the airport about 30 people from possibly the grassroots network dressed all in black with scarves and hoods covering their faces made a run for it, and got through some of the police. Some of them may have got into the airport. They never rejoined the main body of the march.
At the airport roundabout a rpw of riot police with their shields forming a wall stopped all progress. The marchers stopped for a few minutes and then did a U turn to anothter round about. After 10-15 minutes the other roundabout was also blocked off, so the marchers made a dash for it Some got to the third exit of the roundabout and pushed against uniformed guards and riot police rugby scrum style for a few minutes and then sat on the road with arms linked. There wasn't any traffic using the road so the action was more or less symbolic, but the Gardai did want to keep it clear anyway. The speeches then got underway.  Uriel Mustafa , an Iraqi woman living in Ireland condemned the Irish government for allowing continued use of Shannon and the deaths it caused. Aoife Ni Fearghaill stated the IAWMs aims and grievances again. Colm Stevenson of the IAWM talked of the quantity of soldiers passing through Irish airports and airspace. He also noted how Bush in visiting Baghdad on Thanksgiving day is the first president to visit a war zone since Nixon went to Vietnam in 69. The morals of US soldiers needs such boosting since the resistance they are encountering is not just "Saddam loyalists" as the corportate media would spout but ordinary Iraqis too.
  After the speeches the marchers went back to the buses in the shopping centre. No traffic was stopped really, except for the inconvenience to motorists as they were diverted by Garda blockades at roundabouts.
   One student from UCD was arrested, but he was released from Shannon Garda station when the protest was over. 2 antiwar protestors managed to get into Shannon airport Terminal building by flying directly from Dublin to Shannon ( Euro 58) and delivered a letter of protest !

Limerick Prison protest


On the way back from Shannon a bus of IAWM protestors stopped at Limerick prison for 15 minutes shouting:
Free Free Fintan Lane,
1,2,3,4 open up the prison door, 5,6,7,8 open up the prison Gate.
Fintan Lane is the Cork IAWM PRO who was sentenced to 2 months imprisonment a few weeks ago. In October 2002 he and other protestors knocked a fence at shannon airport and walked onto the airport. They were charged with trespassing and ordered to pay a Euro 750 fine. Fintan would not pay the fine as it would be an admission of guilt, but he does not feel guilty about trying to stop the US war machine, so the state has had to send him to jail instead.
  Prison officers immediatly came out and closed the gate outside the prison doors, and retreated.  Protesters shook the gate and made loads of noise, but its doubtful that Fintan could hear them behind the Dundrum mental hospital style walls. Unbelieveably the gates started coming loose and the gap between them widening, but this wasn't supposed to be a jail break so the protesters stopped. It doesn't say much for the security of Limerick prison though.