An Taoiseach Simon Harris was greeted with a peaceful demonstration supporting an end to the war in Palestine before he attended the official opening of the new €17 million de Valera Library in Ennis on Friday.
The protest included representatives of People Against Genocide, East Clare for Palestine, World Beyond War, and the Clare Irish Palestinian Solidarity Campaign.
Peadar King said the government has stated repeatedly there is no evidence of arms being carried through Irish airspace.
However, Mr King pointed out that the Department of Transport has consistently refused to carry out weapons inspections of aircraft that are using Shannon Airport.
“Ireland is a neutral country. We shouldn’t be flying foreign soldiers and armies through Irish airspace. That makes Ireland complicit in the genocide that is unfolding in Gaza,” he said.
“There are 800 US military bases across the world. Shannon Airport isn’t included in that but it is effectively a US military base because of the way we facilitate that. Ireland does this free of charge because of the agreement between Ireland and the US their military planes can land here free of any charge.
“People argue there is an economic dividend of the US army coming through Shannon. There is if you count food and drink like coca cola and burgers. Apart from that, there is no economic dividend.”
Martina O’Neill called on the government to terminate its contract for providing drones to Israel as she believes this is making the Irish State complicit in the war in Gaza.
If there are American war planes using Shannon Airport, Ms O’Neill said you could be sure they are carrying arms and claimed the Israelis are using our airspace for the last three years to transport arms.
She called on the Department of Transport to inspect every single plane.
“They could stop United States of America war planes using Shannon Airport our civilian airport going to Israel or Ukraine,” she said.
“Only for Bertie Ahern’s stupidity in offering Shannon Airport to the Americans around the time of the Iraq War, that is when that started.
“It is actually costing us money to have US warplanes in Shannon because our army and police force are providing security for these warplanes.
“The use of Shannon for military purposes is putting us in danger. Munition factories are making a lot of money out of this, there is a lot of money in war. Who is benefiting from that war?
“There was an opportunity for peace talks for Ukraine but it was shot down. The Israelis have the complete backing of the United States of America in every way. Palestinian people have been living under occupation and an apartheid state since 1948.
“Who is talking about the thousands of people detained against their will and tortured in Israel.”
Orla Ni Eili, formally of the Clare Immigrant Support Centre, pointed out that the arms industry only makes money from having more wars. She expressed concern that Shannon Airport could be a target.
Commenting on Clare Champion queries, a Department of Transport spokesperson advised the newspaper to direct these queries to the Department of Foreign Affairs.
East Clare correspondent, Dan Danaher is a journalism graduate of Rathmines and UL. He has won numerous awards for special investigations on health, justice, environment, and reports on news, agriculture, disability, mental health and community.