Airport failed to notice security breach

SHANNON Airport has insisted its security procedures are of the highest international standards, following an incident on Sunday in which two peace protestors were escorted off a runway.
It was a colleague of the protestors who alerted security personnel to their presence on the runway. The two were subsequently arrested and a file is to be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The airport issued a brief statement following the incident. “Shannon Airport’s security levels are and will continue to be of the highest international airport standards. The incident in question is under investigation by gardaí and we will be making no further comment as a result,” it said.
Seventy-eight-year-old Margaretta d’Arcy was one of the two protestors. She said they were quite happy to be arrested. “We went so that the authorities would know that we are making a strong stand against the military at Shannon. The authorities were alerted A for safety and B because we want to be charged.
“We want to be able to produce our evidence, to be able to question the gardaí about why they never search the planes. At the moment, there’s a stalemate. Questions have been asked in the Dáil and the answers are always the same, ‘The Americans have assured us that there’s nothing there’. We have ample evidence that it is there. There are two ways of looking at the courts. One is that you’ve been caught and you’re some kind of criminal and you’re going to be punished. Another way is of having this conversation and debate.”
She said she had brought some of her late husband’s ashes on the protest, as he had protested against US military use of Shannon prior to his death earlier this year. “I brought a tiny handful of my husband’s ashes so he would be with me on that protest because he had been in Shannon as well.”
Niall Farrell was also arrested. He said the timing of the protest was deliberate. “The seventh marked the 11th anniversary of the war in Afghanistan and the War on Terror. That was the principal reason we did it, to raise the fact that for the last 11 years, US military and US weaponry have been travelling through Shannon.
“The other thing we wanted to raise is that from the sixth to the 13th, there’s an international campaign raising the issue of the use of drones by the US military.”
He said the protestors had made sure planes wouldn’t be taking off or landing when they encroached on the runway. “We deliberately waited for a window of opportunity to go in, we had already checked on the Shannon website when flights would be going in and coming out.”