Shannon: The Government will have no choice but to withdraw the use of Shannon Airport from the US military when the US this week fails to secure a second UN resolution to go to war. Gordon Deegan reports.
That is the view of author and broadcaster, Ms Leila Doolan, who addressed protesters outside Shannon's airport terminal at the latest anti-war protest at Shannon on Saturday afternoon.
NUIG lecturer, Ms Doolan said: "Bertie Ahern must withdraw the use of Shannon from the US military after the second resolution is defeated this week because no longer will he able to hide behind his excuse that the use of Shannon by the US military is part of a UN initiative."
At Saturday's protest, gardaí and airport police mounted a large security operation outnumbering two to one the 50 or so protesters gathered in Shannon to celebrate International Women's Day.
A Garda helicopter monitored the scene from overhead, while the Garda dog unit was also brought in to support local gardaí and airport police.
A spokesman said: "Some people might call it overkill, but we didn't know how many protesters would show up here today.
"It is very hard to judge, so the gardaí that are here are here as a precaution."
Outside the terminal, for over an hour, protesters heard anti-war speeches, songs and poems at the good-humoured rally.
Ms Maggie Roynane of the Global Women's Strike said: "We are demanding a change in Government priorities.
"It is appalling that Mr Ahern and his Government are proposing to cut maternity services across the country, while spending massive money defending these warplanes from us."
Ms Roynane added: "We don't want war, we are afraid of it, we are terrified of what it is going to bring to us and our children.
"We are the first carers and we also bare the brunt of what will happen."
Ms Roynane said that she was happy with the attendance at the demonstration.
She said: "It a diverse crowd here today which is part of a large number of demonstrations across the world, so we don't feel small."
In his address to the crowd outside the airport terminal, playwright, John Arden said: "No victory is possible: all that the war can achieve will be a series of pretexts for more wars."
He went on: "Women and children and the elderly will be the ones who will suffer most, as they always are in a war.
"In other words, the chief carers of the world will face hideous deprivation together and will not be able to resist it, for their voices have not been heard and their invisibility is almost total in the map-rooms of lethal power.
"This year as never before, the importance of a Global Women's Strike flings itself at our heart and at our head.
"It demands support of all men who oppose the war: it is the positive aspect of our vital and resounding negative.
Ms Doolan told protesters: "You have been telling the people that this is the eleventh hour. Now you must go back and tell them that this is the hour."