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.