PEACE group Shannonwatch held its first protest of 2023 last Sunday.
Spokesman John Lannon said that the monthly protests will continue throughout 2023.
“The conditions at Shannon are still the same. There are US military planes landing and taking off, in particular the troop carriers are coming through, there are other planes as well.
“There has been no response from the authorities or the Government to all the requests we have made over the years for proper inspections, for information about what’s on the planes and where they are going, so the protests will continue.”
There were relatively small numbers there last weekend, but he said that is usually the case at the start of the year.
“January is always a poor month in terms of turnout. I can’t remember how many we had there, I think there were 10-15.
“The protests have been ongoing since January 2008, with the exception of the months during the Covid lockdown when congregations weren’t permitted, but we resumed when we could after Covid and we’re keeping it going.”
Is it hard to keep protesting given that years have gone into it, and the military use still continues?
“No, in short, it isn’t. We have people who attend regularly. We’d have many people who can’t attend all of them, but would attend many.
“We have local people from Shannon, people come from Limerick, people come from other parts of the country, particularly from Galway, Cork and Dublin.
“Last Sunday we had people there from Dublin and Galway. We do notice that we get more support now for our presence there than we would have several years ago.
“The fact that we continue to maintain a presence there means that we are continuing to draw attention to the foreign military use of the airport.
“It isn’t really talked about that much,” he concluded.
Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked with a number of other publications in Limerick, Cork and Galway. His first book will be published in December 2024.