Anti-war activists have been told that protesting against the use of Shannon by the US military is no longer enough, that action must now be taken.
Addressing a rally near Shannon airport on Saturday, Ed Horgan of the Peace and Neutrality Alliance (Pana) said: "Over the coming months and years if necessary, we must renew our efforts to remove the US military out of Shannon. We must do this by mass demonstrations if these are possible, or by small groups and even individual demonstrations and peace actions."
He added: "We are here to promote peace by peaceful means, but standing idly and silently by while innocent people are being murdered and tortured in our name is not good enough.
"We must first of all speak out the truth, but more importantly we must take action to stop this evil. Protesting is no longer enough. Bertie Ahern once said that the 100,000 people who marched in Dublin in February 2003 were supporting his stand on the Iraq war. That was a lie and he said it once, but once too often.
"This weekend the IRA are decommissioning their weapons along the Border counties and getting lots of media attention for doing this. It's high time some of the weapons passing through Shannon airport were also decommissioned," Mr Horgan said.
In response to the rally organised by Pana, the Irish Anti-War Movement and the Peace Alliance, 120 gardaí were deployed to ensure the protest did not get within 2 km of the terminal.
A Garda spokesman said the numbers at the protest were 200, while organisers claimed the numbers were closer to 500.
Insp Tom Kennedy said: "The protest was very peaceful, passed off without incident and the airport functioned as normal."
Labour TD Jan O'Sullivan told the crowd: "The Labour Party supports this protest, and the use of Shannon by the US military should be discontinued. It is a breach of our neutrality to continue to allow US troops to use Shannon. The Government has actively encouraged the military use of Shannon."
She said it was a sad situation that for the airport to break even, Shannon had to facilitate the movement of US troops. "The region shouldn't be dependent on the troops using the airport to avoid Shannon losing money."
The most recent figures from the Shannon Airport Authority show that almost as many US troops have passed through Shannon during the first six months of this year as during the whole of 2004.
From January to June, 153,381 troops stopped over at Shannon compared to the 158,549 troops who passed through last year.
The troop traffic is expected to have generated €18 million in income from the US government to date this year and the business has helped the airport to avoid losses.
