Irish peace protesters disarm US warplane at Shannon Airport

Five arrested at Shannon Airport
February 3, 2003 (10:54)
Five people have been arrested at Shannon Airport and are being questioned by Gardaí.

Gardaí say the five - three women and two men - were detained at approximately 4am today after they gained access to a hanger and damaged a US military aircraft.

It is understood the five managed to enter the old SRS hangar at the airport where the US Navy plane was being repaired.

In the early hours of Monday 03 February, five members of the pacifist Catholic Worker movement cut their way into Shannon Airport (see  http://www.refuelingpeace.org/). 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.

The activists approached the hanger housing the US Navy plane under repair. They painted "Pit stop of death" on the hanger's roller door, and began the dismantling of the hanger. Others entered the hanger to disarm the repaired US warplane.


A woman Mary Kelly was remanded in custody last week after causing damage estimated at €500,000 to the same aircraft.

It is understood the group, who range in age from early 20s to early 40s, overpowered a Garda who was on duty there. Gardaí say they claim to be from a pacifist Catholic Worker movement.

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