A retired Army officer who took an unsuccessful case against the Government's decision allowing Shannon Airport to be used as a transit facility for US forces in the Iraq war has said he will not appeal to the Supreme Court.
Mr Edward Horgan, Castletroy,Limerick, was an Army commandant who served with UN peacekeeping missions in Cyprus and the Middle East in the 1960s and 1970s. He left the Army in 1986.
Earlier this year he sued the Taoiseach and the Government, claiming they had acted unconstitutionally by permitting the use of Shannon. The High Court ruled against him but directed that the State should pay half his costs, estimated at € 100,000.
Mr Horgan told a news conference in Dublin yesterday that he had taken "extensive legal advice" on the likely outcome of launching a Supreme Court appeal on the basis that the Constitution had "a specific requirement that [the] Government should abide by the generally recognised principles of international law in its conduct of Ireland's international affairs".
He said he was "saddened" the court had accepted the Government's argument against permitting a constitutional challenge, on grounds of "justice and morality", to a future war declared by the Government with the approval of the Dáil.
It was an "appalling vista" that a government could now "flout the requirements of justice and morality in international affairs with an easy mind".
The court had "facilitated a significant shift in the balance of power in favour of Government at the expense of the citizens and the courts themselves".
But he added: "I have concluded that the majority of judges at present sitting in the Supreme Court will not stand in the way of \ Government on this issue. I therefore see no point in appealing to that court."
He hoped his case had brought "these important matters" to the attention of citizens. "Does this spell the end for Irish neutrality? I believe it does. Does this spell the end for the United Nations? If small states like Ireland renege on the UN, as I believe Ireland has just done, I believe this spells the beginning of the end for the UN," he said.