Indymedia Ireland is now one year old after twelve eventful months in which coverage of Garda violence at a RTS demo brought national attention and a Gardaí internal inquiry, the Ansbacher Report was published online, and article 133 became an important part of the debate on the Nice referendum.

Among over 26,000 postings to the newswire were stories on the use of Shannon airport as a US military refueling depot, the threat to Carrickmines Castle and a variety of protests and direct actions. Many stories broken by Indymedia.ie have turned up in commercial publications.

Some of the first Indymedia stories sound familiar a year later. Stories on anti-war demonstrations at Shannon Airport and the arrest of anti-car protestors both appeared on the newswire in the first few days of Indymedia.ie.

Despite a successful first year providing an alternative, non-commercial source of news and information Indymedia.ie hasn't been without its critics ( 2 ) ( 3 ), which shows it must be doing something right.

Open Letter in response to criticisms of Indymedia by the Sunday Independent's Brendan O'Connor.

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In the early hours of Monday 3 February, five members of the pacifist Catholic Worker Movement ( 2 ) cut their way into Shannon Airport ( 2 ). The peace activists poured human blood on the runway that has been servicing U.S. military flights, troop and munition deployments to U.S. military bases in Kuwait and Qatar. They constructed a shrine on the runway to Iraqi children killed and threatened by U.S./British bombardment and sanctions. The shrine consisted of copies of the Bible and Quran, rosary and muslim prayer beads, flowers, photographs of Iraqi children and Brigid's crosses. They then began to take up the runway, working on its edge with a mallet.

Despite other media giving space to reports of a Garda being assaulted or overpowered, this was refuted by the protestors themselves.

Ciaron O'Reilly, one of the Catholic Worker activists arrested, said today that they had indeed met met a Garda who, rather than being overpowered, had had a kind of stress/panic reaction to their presence and had become upset. According to Ciaron the Garda was concerned with his job and with the reaction of his superiors. Ciaran made it clear that at no point had the Catholic Worker activists approached, attacked or restrained the Garda and that he was their arresting officer. Ciaran is further reported as saying that the five Catholic Worker protesters were themselves upset by the Garda's reaction and had attempted to comfort and reassure him.

Read More | Updates: ( 1 ) ( 2 ) ( 3 ) ( 4 ) ( 5 ) ( 6 ) | Picture of those arrested

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A local peace activist was arrested this morning after attempting to disarm a US military plane parked at Shannon Airport.

Mary Kelly entered the airport last night and succeeded in damaging the nose of the plane with a hatchet before she was apprehended. Mary said that she felt compelled to act after the statement last weekend from the Transport Minister that he was allowing the transport of munitions through Shannon and because the Gardai were not doing their job, investigating and preventing illegal military use of Shannon, properly. Her actions, while controversial, have been supported by the Shannon Peace Camp and by Green Party leader Trevor Sargent and again highlight the US military's use of Shannon airport in the buildup to war on Iraq.

A protest against US military use of shannon has been called for 6pm this evening, January 29th at the Dáil by the IAWM

Read More: ( 1 ) ( 2 )

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Much material being published on Indymedia Ireland at present focuses on the buildup to a war on Iraq, the Peace Camp at Shannon Airport and various forms of anti-war organising in the leadup to a national demonstration on 15th Febuary in Dublin.

Anti-war meetings have been held or are planned at Galway, Sligo, Limerick, Wexford, Dublin, Dun Laoghaire, Rathmines, Ballymun, Fairview, Maynooth and UCD while the anti-war film 'Paying the Price - Killing the Children' is being shown at Lahinch and Tuamgraney in Co. Clare. A Walk for Peace from Bunratty Castle to Shannon is also planned.

Opposition to the war and to the use of Shannon airport by American forces is also growing among politicians as Labour, the Green Party, and Republican Sinn Fein have come out strongly against American use of Shannon. A Dáil Private Members' Motion on on the use of Shannon Airport by US Military has also been tabled and unions have put forward their own anti-war motion from IAWM.

Meanwhile a Muslim leader in transit to the US has been jailed in Shannon, and the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior has blockaded a UK military port.

Related news and analysis:
Legal analysis of Shannon situation from Eoin Dubsky
Violence abroad/Cutbacks at home | Bio-War supplement in the papers
Why this war is about oil | What's wrong with America?


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On Saturday February 1st a 24 hour vigil is planned in defense of the 90 or so trees in Eyre Square. The vigil is part of a campaign launched on 14th January to save the trees. One of the trees under threat was planted to celebrate Galway becoming a 'Nuclear Free Zone'.

The Galway Environmental Alliance have been raising awareness of the threat to the trees since 1999 and are involved in this latest initiative to secure a future for them.

Almost one thousand people have sent submissions to the City Council asking that the trees be incorporated into the Eyre Square enhancement plan. This has been ignored by the City Authorities. Popular disssatisfaction with the imposed plan to chop down the majority of the mature trees and replace them with saplings is reflected by the hundrds of coloured ribbons attached to them by objectors to the plans for their future.

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