Comparative review of the role of the Irish Army in peace-keeping overthe past 50 years and the British Army's counter-insurgency role in the same period often waged ruthlessly and with brutal consequences. read full story / add a comment

The Taoiseach ,The arms dealers ,his money and the Gulf war.The arrival of an obscure millionaire to Massbrook Pontoon Co Mayo in the later part of the last century was cloaked in secrecy. Across the lake of Lough Conn the home town of Charles Haughey and Enda Kenny ,Castlebar was to be the recruiting ground for one of the largest arms controversies in modern times and the key issue that led to the Gulf War.

Here is that story. read full story / add a comment

Shannonwatch are appalled at the shocking revelations about CIA torture of detainees in the US Senate intelligence committee report released on Tuesday Dec 9th. Details of the methods used, the extent of the torture and the scale of lies and deceit from a government agency are even worse than was already known. Ireland's complicity has already been documented by other reports, but given this new information it is now well past time for a full investigation of the role played by Shannon in the brutal and illegal interrogation undertaken by the CIA. read full story / add a comment

Shannonwatch have expressed their disappointment that the State has decided to summons TDs Clare Daly and Mick Wallace to appear before Ennis District Court on Wednesday December 3rd for peace actions, while at the same time failing to investigate complaints made about US military and other aircraft that may be in breach of international law. read full story / add a comment

Policing for the G20 summit in Brisbane this past weekend was of overkill proportions. There was very little in the way of serious resistance, the Guardian reported that cops (6,000) outnumbered protesters and only 14 arrests were made. One of these was Irish-Australian Manning and Assange solidarity and anti-war activist Ciaron O'Reilly, who has been held in custody all weekend and will be brought before Brisbane Magistrates on Monday morning. read full story / add a comment

A high level technical analysis of why MH17 crashed down and how it was worked out. Clear evidences show that the airplane was shot down by an ukrainian fighter jet.

Eyewitnesses have seen and heared a second airplane near the passenger plane. Look for these You Tube Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa_R2NA1txc ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czqmeMhWyFo
; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuoIw3jBV4g , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuoIw3jBV4g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuoIw3jBV4g
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Shannonwatch welcomes the visit to Shannon Airport by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions. The visit which took place on October 2nd was a follow-up to a petition by Shannonwatch earlier this year. The petition called for the Government to investigate the use of Shannon Airport and Irish airspace for the transit of US armed troops, munitions and other war material, as well as for the refuelling of CIA-associated aircraft involved in extraordinary rendition.

During their visit to Shannon, representatives of the Committee met with members of the Gardai including Chief Superintendent John Kerin and with airport officials before meeting again with Shannonwatch. They were informed that about 40,000 US troops had gone through Shannon so far this year. However Shannonwatch understands that airport officials said that US troops were not essential to the economics of Shannon Airport as they contribute relatively little, and that civilian passengers contribute far more with shopping, car parking and so on. read full story / add a comment

Shannonwatch are inviting groups and individuals from around Ireland to join them in organising a series of peace events at Shannon Airport on the weekend of October 11th and 12th. The main event of the weekend will be a public demonstration on Sunday 12th at 2pm, calling for an end to the US military use of the airport.

The event is being co-organised and supported by a large number of groups including Shannonwatch, Galway Alliance Against War, the Peace and Neutrality Alliance (PANA), the Irish Anti-War Movement (IAWM), Afri, and the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC). Bus transport is being arranged from Dublin on Sunday 12th and as a result a large turnout is expected (contact details for the bus are given below). read full story / add a comment

The Iraqi ethnic and religious minority descends from some of the region’s most ancient roots and face executions for a reputation as ‘devil worshippers’.
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Today 2/8/14, on the 3 month anniversary of the Odessa massacre, we joined in with comrades outside of the Ukrainian embassy in Dublin to tell the Kiev regime - stop the Slaughter of innocent civilians.

To date there has been over 1000 people killed. What's happening in Ukraine is appalling, it's a total massacre of innocent civilians. Atrocities are being committed by the Fascist Kiev Junta and here the media and the political class are ignoring it altogether. read full story / add a comment

Niall Farrell of the Galway Alliance Against War is to be arrested on Friday, 1st of August on his return from abroad and sent to Limerick Prison for his involvement in a peace protest with Margaretta D'Arcy last September on the runway at Shannon airport. In June they were found guilty of having "interfered with the proper use" of Shannon airport and given a two week suspended sentence and what approximates to a €100 fine. Both refused to pay the fine or sign a so-called peace bond and Ms D'Arcy has since been imprisoned for her failure to comply with the Ennis District Court's ruling. read full story / add a comment

We were soldiers in a wide variety of units and positions in the Israeli military—a fact we now regret, because, in our service, we found that troops who operate in the occupied territories aren’t the only ones enforcing the mechanisms of control over Palestinian lives. In truth, the entire military is implicated. For that reason, we now refuse to participate in our reserve duties, and we support all those who resist being called to service.

The Israeli Army, a fundamental part of Israelis’ lives, is also the power that rules over the Palestinians living in the territories occupied in 1967. As long as it exists in its current structure, its language and mindset control us: We divide the world into good and evil according to the military’s categories; the military serves as the leading authority in deciding who is valued more and who less in society – who is more responsible for the occupation, who is allowed to vocalize their resistance to it and who isn’t, and how they are allowed to do it. The military plays a central role in every action plan and proposal discussed in the national conversation, which explains the absence of any real discussion of non-military solutions to the conflicts Israel has been locked in with its neighbors. read full story / add a comment

We are doctors and scientists, who spend our lives developing means to care and protect health and lives. We are also informed people; we teach the ethics of our professions, together with the knowledge and practice of it. We all have worked in and known the situation of Gaza for years.

On the basis of our ethics and practice, we are denouncing what we witness in the aggression of Gaza by Israel. read full story / add a comment

Yesterday independent TD's Clare Daly and Mick Wallace carried out a protest designed to highlight use of Shannon for military purposes yesterday. They were later released. Daly has vowed to hold the state to account for it's complicity in US military warmongering in the middle east and elsewhere. Fair play to Clare and Mick. read full story / add a comment

In the past week, Israeli military forces have escalated their offensive on the Gaza Strip. Israeli warplanes have increasingly targeted houses, civilian-populated areas and civilian facilities in the Gaza strip. Israeli warplanes have destroyed a number of houses while their residents were inside, without any prior warnings, killing and wounding many Palestinian civilians.
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As the death toll in Israel’s latest onslaught on Gaza surpasses 260, actions have been called around Ireland taking place this week and next. It’s important that as many people as possible turn out to show their solidarity with the Palestinians people under attack, their opposition to this latest round of brutal attacks on Gaza, and their anger at political inaction and media misreporting of the issue. read full story / add a comment

Yesterday afternoon tragically 295 people lost their lives. What we do know is that if the Kiev fascist regime had any sort of tenuous proof that the separatists had shot it down the Western media would be screaming bloody murder. Instead they are quite coy and initially qualified it with the word accident. And accident of sorts it may well have been because it looks like this may have been more than yet another provocation by US/NATO via their neo-Nazi puppets in Kiev to widen the conflict but in fact may have been a direct attempt to assassinate president Putin because it has been reported his presidential plane flew over the same region approximately 30 minutes earlier. More on this later. But first some details on the lead up to this. read full story / add a comment

On 9 July, 2004, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued an Advisory Opinion titled Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, in which it concluded that “the construction of the wall being built by Israel, the occupying power, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and around East Jerusalem, and its associated regime, are contrary to international law”. read full story / add a comment

SUMMARY: I arrived in Ennis without pen or notebook to support the action of Margaretta D'Arcy and Niall Farrell who protested on the runway of Shannon against the US military use of the airport. The following is a colour story of happenings on the day relying on memory only. I hope that someone else may provide a fuller report and my apologies for any errors in this report which are entirely my responsibility. read full story / add a comment

Gerry Conlon's speech in full, filmed by Dave Donnellan at Trinity College Dublin, in solidarity with Chelsea Manning and her family. With introductory song 'Giuseppe Conlon' by Joe Black.

Dave Donnellan writes:

"On the 29 November 2013 an event was held in Trinity College Dublin to mark the visit of the family of Chelsea Manning to Dublin. During the evening Gerard Conlon gave a speech that nobody who was there is ever likely to forget. It was Gerard Conlon at his best: fiery, courageous and compassionate. May he rest in peace."
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