Excerpt from Address to Court: "Shannon is the `welcome mat' for US troops en route to Iraq, and the entry point to the Middle East. This `welcome mat' was NOT put there by the Irish citizens, but by a Government that continues to ignore the will of its people. . . . . Faced with the mounting evidence of US and British determination to attack Iraq in spite of worldwide opposition I felt obliged to take direct action.

One immediate result of my action and a similar action a few days later by 5 Catholic Workers, was the pull out of 2 military carriers from using the airport. This temporary withdrawal, although a success, was not a triumph. Numerous US air carriers continued to use Shannon for refuelling facilities, and hence the Irish Government continued to fuel the war. This refuelling continues today, and I am here to call for an International campaign to support those of us in Ireland who are engaged in this fight.

Our actions achieved three things: 1) The use of Shannon airport by the US military inescapably captured the media headlines and alerted Irish people to the realities and seriousness of Ireland’s incorporation into the build up to an illegal war 2) It struck a serious blow to the confidence of the US military security at the airport 3) It inspired Irish anti-war activists. The biggest demonstration ever against US military aggression happened two weeks later in Dublin, our capital city, where over 150,000 people marched, while other marches happened throughout the country.

By the time of my trial in June, however, the anti-war feeling of Feb 15th was shown to be mere sentiment in the face of persistent scare-mongering about US disinvestment from Ireland and consequent economic collapse. In spite of this huge opposition on Feb 15, only a small number of people stood in my support outside the courthouse in June. Yet my trial featured such international figures as Ramsey Clarke, Scott Ritter, Dennis Halliday and Michael Birmingham. I faced a virtual media blackout and practical desertion by the popular movement, including the Left. Fortunately, the Arabic TV station Al Jazeera were there to document the whole trial.

My experience has taught me that one of the biggest weapons of Imperialism facing us in Ireland is its ability to anaesthetise the public’s conscience and there is no doubt that the last 10 years of Ireland’s economic boom – popularly known as the Celtic Tiger – has done just that. The Celtic Tiger, almost entirely a US dollar creation, has coincided closely with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the creation of the Project for the New American Century. Shannon airport, the closest European international airport to the USA, is being privatised. It is now clear that Shannon airport is to become a major US military airbase as part of the US conquest of the Middle East, Eastern Europe and ultimately Western Europe. The Celtic Tiger was the price of the conscience of Ireland."

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