Activists protest at attention of gardai

Peace activists based at Shannon are to shut down their "peace house" in response to contining monitoring of their activities by gardaí. The activists have used this as a base since last January to record US military flights in and out of Shannon.

A member of Refuelling Peace, Mr Tim Hourigan, said yesterday that he had lodged a complaint with the Garda Complaints Board. "We are closing the peace house down because we believe that this behaviour by the gardaí exceeds surveillance and has made life very difficult for us here."

Mr Hourigan - who ran unsuccessfully for the Green Party in the Limerick East constituency in last year's general election - said that the surveillance began on the first day of the war with Iraq 10 days ago. He claims one of the incidents involved being followed into Limerick by an unmarked Garda car containing two officers from Shannon Garda station earlier this week.

He said: "As we were being followed on foot by one of the gardaí in Limerick city-centre, I introduced the garda to Labour deputy Jan O'Sullivan, whom we met on the street."

This was yesterday confirmed by Ms O'Sullivan. She said: "Tim introduced the man as a garda who was following them around. The man didn't identify himself to me."

She added: "It seems a total over-reaction by the gardaí. Tim is a very honest, very committed peace activist, and he cannot be classified in any way as being a danger to people or property. He has put tremendous energy into the issue of US planes using Shannon and is highly respected in the area."

The Green Party leader, Mr Trevor Sargent, said that the actions of the gardaí were "unjustified". He added: "The Irish people owe Tim Hourigan a debt of gratitude for being the first to highlight the use of Shannon by the US military."