A-Infos (en) Mothers day on the long road to Shannon Warport March 31 2003

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> From: Andrew To: ainriail@struggle.ws 
Another day of protesting in the capital was followed 
by a plan for a 'slow march' to the Terminal at 
Shannon airport on Sunday.

So again for GNAW activists in Dublin this meant 
another early start. Clocks had gone forward an hour 
be we all still managed to be at Wood Quay for 9.30am. 
An elderly shrewd woman passer by asked what the red & 
black flags were for. We informed her we were 
anarchists on the way to Shannon for a protest and she 
told us how her local residents group were against 
this war. She wished us luck and told us not to get 
arrested.

We filled two cars and headed off on the N7 again for 
what seemed like the 100th time. I know the names of 
all the towns no matter how small. Boris, Mounthrath, 
Emo 2Km somewhere to the west of us and Toomeyvara 
where we have our favourite pit stop. After getting 
through Limerick the skies darkened ominously. We soon 
came across the largest road block I've encountered 
yet for one of these demonstrations.

We tried to hide the flag poles. Fortunately the 12 
Gardai were too busy stopping buses to worry about a 
Dublin registered car with a black hooded suspicious 
type riding shotgun with two 8 foot flagpoles inside 
the car. They stopped the bus from Cork, boarded it 
and searched peoples bags and belongings. Just another 
paragraph to the history of the intimidation of 
activists by the State.

We got through without being stopped as the boys in 
yellow were too interested in swapping jokes and going 
though pre-game analysis of the grand slam decider. We 
had some time to spare so we went to the Shannon peace 
house. This house and the people who live here have 
done an amazing job in highlighting the role being 
played by Shannon airport in this dirty war. They have 
shone a light on the proceedings in Clare and for that 
they are being harassed and hassled by the Gardai. Now 
the landlady is being hasseled into evicting her 
tenants. Another dirty little campaign being waged by 
the forces of law and order. Maybe we'll get another 
tribunal in ten years time dealing with their tactics 
here. As we parked around the corner from the house we 
looked directly at two special branch detectives 
sitting in the car in front of us. People at the peace 
house have helped with legal and prisoner support. 
They also still are documenting the planes and flights 
that come into and leave the airport ferrying troops 
and arms to the war zone.

We finally arrived into the car park shortly before 
2.00pm. It wasn't looking very promising so we went to 
the pub to watch the rugby. Not my sport but I really 
enjoyed catching the first thirty minutes of the game 
whilst people assembled in the car park. I also 
enjoyed it knowing that the State had mobilised 400 
cops for the demonstration and that they probably all 
wanted to see the game also.

At about 2.45pm we moved out of the car park. There 
was a lot of imagination on display in this 
demonstration. Cork had provided a black coffin with 
the words 'Neutrality' on it. This led the slow 
funeral procession out of the car park and down the 
road to Shannon airport. It was trailed by people 
dressed in black with white face paint on and blood 
red hands. There was a Charlie chaplain like figure on 
stilts looking very sad indeed. On either side of the 
coffin there was the Red and black anarchists flags. 
There was a Palestinian flag flying also lest we 
forget the genocide that Sharon's army is committing 
there.

Someone had brought along a ghetto blaster and a slow 
mournful requiem was being played for auld Irelands 
mythological reality contained in the black box. The 
darkness that was in evidence earlier in the day had 
disappeared and the sun shone down brilliantly on this 
scene. It reminded me of something that you would see 
on the set of a Fellini film. I don't really know what 
the local people who came to the door steps to witness 
the crowd of about a hundred file slowly past their 
houses made of it.

I looked up and saw the sun glint though the flag and 
though it looked like old propaganda shots from the 
Spanish civil war. The mood was fairly sombre and we 
had many changes of pall bearers. Once again some of 
the local kids came down to join us in masks and white 
boiler suits. After about 40 minutes we turned the 
corner so that we could see Shannon airport up in the 
distance. Just about 50 yards in front of where the 
peace camp had been there was a line of 30 of so cops. 
Then stretching both sides of this line with crash 
barriers - there was Gardai stretching into the 
distance on the far side of a 12 foot wide dyke.

There was a lot of triple time over time being made by 
the lads and lassies in florescent yellow. This 
peaceful march was going no further. They made that 
abundantly clear. We sang songs and had a speak out 
with the megaphone being left on the coffin for all to 
come up and have a few words. The state was criticised 
its role in intimidating and harassing us. It was also 
taken to task for not letting us have a peaceful 
demonstration to the terminal. In fact we weren't 
allowed to get to the sign that welcome's people to 
Shannon airport.

Caoimhe Butterly (an activist who has spent a 
significant part of her time in Palestine) made a very 
moving plea to the female gardai present to look into 
their hearts on this Mothers day and themselves what 
they were doing by protecting this pit-stop for the US 
war machine. Tim and others explained to the people 
the harassment that they've continually experienced 
when they have simply been trying to document the 
planes that are using this airport. Another speaker 
asked the guards to raise their hands if they were in 
favour of the war. It appeared to all present then 
that they all opposed the war when they failed to 
react to the question.

Songs were sung. Chants of shame were cried out. An 
Iraqi woman spoke of the many various kinds of people 
from different religions who were being slaughtered 
indiscriminately by the US. She also chanted the 
various names for God in Arabic. A small girl came up 
and said the following statement "I don't care what 
you guards say, This war is Wrong".

Myself and a friend were informed by the inspector 
that we were out of line when we strayed 10 yards to 
the left of the demonstration to have a look at the 
obstacles in our way. It's amazing to think of the 
arrogance and power that pervades - the force - since 
they've brought into being the public order act. It 
appears that they can and will try to tell you where 
you can stand on a public road.

Finally we had 4 women pall bearers slowly march up to 
the crash barriers and hand in the coffin for Irish 
neutrality. They refused to take it of course. As one 
speaker illustrated the last time martial law was 
enacted in Clare the black and tans we there. It now 
appears that Bertie imposes martial law around his 
precious refuelling dump for the UASF every time GNAW 
call for a protest there.

In a most apt moment three demonstrators sat on the 
road in front of the army of Guardai who had stared 
stoically at proceedings for over an hour without 
reaction and mimed the three monkeys. See no evil, 
hear no evil, speak no evil. That appears to be the 
role of many people have adapted for themselves in 
regard to this war.

We promised to be back and with a far bigger crowd of 
demonstrators. As much as they would like their 
compliant use of Shannon will not fade away. 
Especially when you see the pictures of fried corpses 
on the front pages of your daily newspapers and you 
know that the bomb that killed them could well have 
been flown though County Clare.

It was dark and late when we finally rolled into 
Dublin. The DJ on the radio was playing AC/DC 'If you 
want blood' and I thought perversely it was 
appropriate. Bush, Rumsfeld, Blair and Ahern have 
spilled the blood of innocent people. They've got that 
on their hands and it appears that's what they wanted 
all along. I for one can't see what else this war has 
achieved.

Report with pictures online at
http://struggle.ws/wsm/news/2003/shannonM31.html

Next demonstrations
This Wed from 19.30 ? blocade? of the Dail in Dublin
Saturday 12th mass civil disobediance at Shannon

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