Appeal to release anti-war protestor

THE Galway Alliance Against War is to hold a protest at the constituency office of Labour TD Derek Nolan today, concerning the jailing of GAAW member Margaretta D’Arcy.

The peace group claims that the Labour Party have reneged on its pledge in the Programme for Government that the US military presence at Shannon airport would end with Ireland adopting the stance taken by Switzerland forbidding foreign military planes involved in war to use its airports and airspace.  Protests are also taking place around including the Dept of Justice in Dublin at 1pm and outside Limerick Prison at 5pm.

The group is to hand in letter calling on Mr Nolan asking him to demand publicly the immediate release of Margaretta D’Arcy from Limerick Prison.

“We also seek that your government adhere to the commitment given in its Programme for Government, which states: “We will enforce the prohibition on the use of Irish airspace, airports and related facilities for purpose not in line with dictates of international law.”

At your party conference in March 2011 to agree entering coalition Eamon Gilmore made it quite clear that this meant the Irish Republic would abide by the Hague Convention; in other words no foreign military planes involved in war would be allowed to use Irish airports and Irish airspace.

Margaretta D’Arcy and Niall Farrell held two peaceful protests on Shannon airport’s runway on the basis of Article 1 of the 1945 Nuremberg Principles: “Individuals have international duties which transcend the national obligations of obedience. Therefore individual citizens have the duty to violate domestic laws to prevent crimes against peace and humanity from occurring.”

“Over the past 12 years, Shannon airport has been an integral cog of Washington’s wars that have caused endless killings. In any sane person’s world the killing of over 2 million innocent people – the equivalent to a third of the population of Ireland – is a holocaust. The Irish state may try to brush it all under the carpet, but the truth is the USA’s “war on terror” is the holocaust of the 21^st century. Shannon airport’s runway is a gateway to that holocaust.

“Would you or indeed the Minister for Justice, Alan Shatter, have considered saboteurs of the railway tracks to the Auschwitz death camp to have been committing a crime? We do not believe so.

“On that very basis neither should Margaretta D’Arcy be brought before a court never mind be imprisoned. What Margaretta did had to be done to highlight Ireland’s part as an accessory to crimes against humanity. It is high time too that the Irish state ended its bloody role in this human holocaust and freed Shannon airport from the clutches of the US military.”