Shannon Peace Camp hits the headlines / Sparks off National Debate / Next
clare |
anti-war / imperialism |
feature 
Wednesday January 15, 2003 03:06
by IMC Editorial Group - IMC Ireland
On the coldest night of the year so far, the 4/5 January, a Peace Camp was
established at Shannon Airport. The Peace Camp kicked off with a 24 hour
Women’s Peace Camp
and quickly began to draw a huge amount of attention
from the
National Media .
The Green Party
and the Labour Party have put
their shoulders to the wheel on the issue and both are calling for the
suspension of US military use of Shannon Airport.
Debates on the legalities
of US
military use of Shannon broke out of the Indymedia ghetto, got an extensive
airing on National TV
and
Radio, and
ended up on the front pages of UK
and Irish Sunday
Newspapers.
It remains to be seen if the debate that has taken place will make an impact
on the size of the upcoming protests at Shannon Airport (18th Jan)
and
in Dublin (15 Feb).
These protests have been arranged to coincide
with global
days of
anti-war action.
Obviously feeling the pressure, Brian Cowen has released a statement
to the media which characterises the extensive US military use of Shannon in the buildup to a possible war in Iraq as ‘business as usual’.
Meanwhile Tim Hourigan and others are maintaining their close watch on US Military use of the airport and they continue to inform the authorities of their findings.
Tim Hourigan appeared on Prime Time on Tue 14th Jan. The fact that he did not (as expected) appear in a live Debate with Brian Cowen has caused some controversy.