Mary Kelly, an Irish nurse and mother of four, peacefully disarmed a USAF warplane in Shannon on Jan 29th 2003 by taking a hatchet to the nose-cone installation. Having failed to convince a jury to convict her on June 30th 2003 Mary now faces prosecution on June 15th by the Irish State for acting according to the dictates of the Nuremburg Convention. Supporters have been active in many cities around Ireland. The following is a brief roundup of the tremenduous support this brave and principled activist is receiving.

From the Newswire: Report from Tommy D:

"Last Saturday more powerful support for St. Mary was evidenced at the Mary Kelly information stall in Shop St, when the Galway 'Mary Kelly Support Group' did their stuff, from 10.30 AM to 5.45 PM, giving out 1,000 leaflets on her plight.

The peak moment of the day was when five preteen/teenage girls, daytripping from Portumna in the Vibrant City, offered to distribute the leaflets to passing pedestrians, when appraised of Mary's disarming of the war plane.

Yet another primo moment was when a guy who stopped at our stall affirmed that he "was against her attack on the plane last year, now I'm for it."

The Ireland Palestine Solidarity Group were out in strength commemorating Nakhbah Day (the planned ethnic cleansing of their land in 1948 by the Zionists) centering their activity around the stall.

Galway Alliance Against War also gave themselves an outing and didn't stint their support for Mary, with one of their activists, dressed as one of the tortured of Abu Ghraib prison, eliciting strong condemnation of the American human rights abuses in Iraq.

To boot, an activist from Galicia, did his stuff for Mary as well. Fair play, Jose !

This Saturday, along with all Saturdays leading up to her trial, another stall is planned. What about activists in Cork, Limerick, Kilkenny, Dublin, etc doing something similiar???? Now is not the time for fiddling and farting about when, as it were, Mary is about to burn."

Fairview Against the War, MAMA and Global Women's Strike will be holding a stall in Ennis every Saturday from 12:30pm in Ennis until Mary's trial on June 15th.

See Mary Kelly's website for more information

As the Occupation of Iraq turns rapidly into the worst-case scenario many feared it would in the run-up to the US / UK invasion - Irish Anti-War Groups are mobilising again to AMBUSH George Bush with some potentially very public Anti-War protests - around Ireland in general and in the Shannon area in particular – when he arrives in Clare to attend the EU / US Summitt.

The Gardai meanwhile are already involved in a police operation in the area of Shannon and have been knocking on residents doors. Police also recently heavily outnumbered protesters in Cork who turned out early in the morning to greet the Republican cabinet member Tommy Thompson.

In an opinion piece (which went unpublished in the Irish Times) Fintan Lane who took part in the protest assesses the lessons of the recent Mayday protests for those planning to lay on a protest when Bush arrives in late June. While the IAWM and AWI compete for space in the media and on the ground in the run-up to the visit others discuss tactics and the value of a populist approach

Latest Security Update From Shannon
More Indymedia Anti-War news
Update: Flag pictured above removed by a person or persons unknown shortly after Gardai call!

Yet another midnight communique from Captain White and his merry mob has arrived to once again add some sparkle to the dreary unpaid lives of pale tired post-Mayday frenzy IMC hacks. The plot thickens . . . this time we leave you in the capable hands of Captain Blue.

"On October 2 1969 the then British Ambassador to Dublin, AW Gilchrist wrote to AKK 'Kevin' White in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The letter quoted the then Proprietor of the Irish Times, Major Thomas B. McDowell, as referring to Douglas Gageby, the Editor, as a “renegade or white nigger”. This was a reference to Gageby’s coverage of “northern questions”. The letter quoted Major McDowell, a member of the Judge Advocates Department of the British Army, as asking 10 Downing Street for guidance in cancelling out the editor’s views and in eliminating “unauthorised” news items further down the chain of journalistic command. The British authorities released the letter under the ‘30 Year Rule’ in late 1999.

As he promised when he signed off the last time (Thursday, Apr 29 2004, 1:38pm) , Captain White has mobilised the intelligence corps in order to discover who suppressed publication of the “renegade.. white nigger” letter in January 2000. While the intelligence corps of most armies tries to plug information leaks, ours unplugs them. The Captain tasked me (Blue) and my team with doing whatever was necessary to get to the bottom of this matter. I wish to report that the chaps have come up trumps and have unearthed the person responsible for sitting on the British Ambassador’s October 2 1969 letter."

Captain Blue Continues his Tale Here >>

Whodunnit Background
1. “The correspondence is being destroyed” : First Part of the Whodunnit
2. Jack Lane Slams Irish Times: Letter to Madam Revealed: Second piece of the Jigsaw
3. Deep Background: Gilchrist Indonesia Ireland Dossier

Wombles Panic In Ireland Ahead of The Ashes: Poet begins laying Down Indecipherable Rules for Cricket: Dire Predictions of Millions of English Thugs Determined to Participate.
"The press will naturally organise the pre-game panic, with stories about wombles, and muppets and anarchists coming to spoil the bowling and batting.
But don't be put off.
It will be great.
hip hip hur RA!"

So it's all over and bound for legend. Tired cranky heads everywhere. So what? They tried to scare the biggest self-defined anti-authoritarian series of demonstrations and actions in recent memory off the streets with an orchestrated media/state moral panic and it did not work. That bears repeating - it did not work. They said the 'ruck at the truck' was a big riot and it wasn't. Now nobody is saying there weren't problems but it was a full on, good humoured, confrontational and effective climax to the weekend and the perfect retort to an anti-democratic Government attempting to scare it's own citizens off the streets. The RTS on Monday was the full on pinnacle of what a self-generated free party can be. Bring on the big bad Bush - the State may be cowed but the streets are alive and word travels fast - no matter what the 'Irish' rags tell you in the next few weeks just remember - 'OUR STREETS'!

***** ALL THE NEWS THAT FITS SPECIAL LAST EVER ISSUE TO CUT OUT AND KEEP: ALL THE FUN OF THE MAYDAYE FAYRE *****

From the newswire (with minor editing) While protesters were gathering in Dublin amid the clouds of fake media hysteria, 80-100 people were in the woods in Co. Clare participating in 14 different courses in environmental and ecological trades run by CELT (Centre for Environmental Living and Training).

Saturday and Sunday last, May first and second, saw this year's first Weekend In The Woods, in Bealkeally, Scarrif, County Clare. The Weekend in The Woods.

Many of same people I had seen before in various actions and protests. Here though they were to be seen learning about river ecology, native woodlands, herbal lore, wood carving, blacksmithing, coppersmithing; building yurts, wattle and daub walls; making tipis rustic furniture, baskets, long bows, dry stone walls….. Others were there just to float about and soak up the beauty and energy of the birds, plants and animals of the woods and lake.