This article is from page 2 of the 2006-01-10 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 2 JPG
THE Peace Camp at Shannon, which was set up over the weekend, passed off without incident.
Peace campaigners gathered to mark the third anniversary of the Camp, which was set up to protest at US military planes being allowed to refuel at Shannon. The gathering came as pressure on the Government from opposition deputies and anti-war groups mounted, to order searches of US-Government chartered planes, to check they were not carrying prisoners bound for torture.
Joe Sheehan of Na Cosantoirí Síochána, the group which organised Saturday’s evening vigil, said that it was important to mark the third anniversary of the camp being set up.
“Before we were doing this sort of work, the government used to say that there was nothing happening at Shannon. Then, when they were confronted with the evidence, they had to say that there were some troops coming through and that they carried some arms. Then they had to admit that military cargo flights were coming through. Now you have Condoleezza Rice giving the Irish government so-called assurances that extraordinary rendition is not taking place here,” Sheehan said.
The vigil was held on the approach road to the airport and organisers screened Margaretta Darcy’s award winning film, Big Plane Small Axe, documenting the trials of Mary Kelly, who attacked a US cargo plane in the airfield at Shannon in February 2003.
The group also planted a tree in remembrance of one of the founding peace campers, Emma O’Carroll who passed away recently.