Shannon Demo, March 30

national | miscellaneous | news report Wednesday March 26, 2003 22:46 by cork peace alliance corkpeacealliance at yahoo dot com

Protesters gather at shannon on Sunday

Protesters, frustrated by United States military usage of Shannon to facilitate their war on Iraq will march on it’s grounds Sunday, March 30th. The majority of Irish people have raised their voices against the use of Shannon but the government has ignored the people. Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats claims that the issue isn’t "black and white," and that state needs "flexibility" to exercise the laws not as they are written, but as the Fianna Fail and the PDs best see fit, with a wisdom that proceeds above and beyond what the people of Ireland want. The oppositions to the war is overwhelming, more than just the activist hardcore, political types but also mothers who’ve never found themselves on protests before, armchair observers, and not particularly left political parties like Fine Gael.

The day was called by the Grassroots Network Against War and is supported by the Cork Peace Alliance (CPA). CPA has been leaning on the Shannon issue for over a year and has supported all actions against its military usage. Jennifer Moore of the CPA said, "Shannon is the most important area of focus for Ireland in the anti-war effort. The government is unlikely to be moved by numbers marching around their offices in Dublin, they’ve seen it all before and rarely does it make any difference. Shannon is where the law breaking is happening, where the US is exploiting Ireland in this war effort. We must stop it from there, where the planes are visible, where the gardai entreat us not to break the law but we can point and say, but look at that law breaking… breaking our backs and our spirits supporting this US lead war effort. It’s not anti-American, I’m American myself, it’s anti-slaughter of innocent people, anti-unjustified war."

The March begins on March 30th, 2pm at the Airport Entrance.

A bus leaves from Cork Opera House at 10.30am.

Protesters, frustrated by United States military usage of Shannon to facilitate their war on Iraq will march on it’s grounds Sunday, March 30th. The majority of Irish people have raised their voices against the use of Shannon but the government has ignored the people. Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats claims that the issue isn’t "black and white," and that state needs "flexibility" to exercise the laws not as they are written, but as the Fianna Fail and the PDs best see fit, with a wisdom that proceeds above and beyond what the people of Ireland want. The oppositions to the war is overwhelming, more than just the activist hardcore, political types but also mothers who’ve never found themselves on protests before, armchair observers, and not particularly left political parties like Fine Gael.

The day was called by the Grassroots Network Against War and is supported by the Cork Peace Alliance (CPA) and Cork Anti War Campaign. CPA has been leaning on the Shannon issue for over a year and has supported all actions against its military usage. Jennifer Moore of the CPA said, "Shannon is the most important area of focus for Ireland in the anti-war effort. The government is unlikely to be moved by numbers marching around their offices in Dublin, they’ve seen it all before and rarely does it make any difference. Shannon is where the law breaking is happening, where the US is exploiting Ireland in this war effort. We must stop it from there, where the planes are visible, where the gardai entreat us not to break the law but we can point and say, but look at that law breaking… breaking our backs and our spirits supporting this US lead war effort. It’s not anti-American, I’m American myself, it’s anti-slaughter of innocent people, anti-unjustified war."

The March begins on March 30th, 2pm at the Airport Entrance.