No You Can’t: Why Shannon Airport should be Open to Business but Closed to War

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Public Meeting: Park Inn Shannon Airport Hotel, 1 May 2010, 2.30pm.

Former Staff Sergeant Jimmy Massey will be among the speakers at a public meeting entitled ‘Why Shannon Airport should be Open to Business but Closed to War’ organised by the justice and peace organisation Afri in the Park Inn Shannon Airport Hotel on Saturday, May 1st beginning at 2.30pm. John Lannon of Shannonwatch will also speak and the event will include a film presentation by Afri board member and film maker Muireann de Barra.

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‘People Crying Out for a Platform’ – Corrib Ruling Shows Need for Civic Platform

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PRESS RELEASE, 16 November 2009

The recent Bord Pleanala ruling in favour of local residents in the ongoing Corrib Gas pipeline dispute highlights the need for new avenues of civic participation, according to a national peace and justice NGO, whose international patron is the distinguished Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Afri Coordinator Joe Murray says that the ruling vindicates the struggle of the local community over the past 10 years but also brings into question why they have had to endure intimidation, jail, beatings and media demonization for much of that time.

“The Corrib gas dispute in many ways tells the story of modern Ireland, where big business has colluded with soft democracy, trampling the rights of ordinary Irish citizens to fair and just treatment. The result has been an erosion of civil liberties and the emergence of corporate rule where multinationals appear to have greater rights than Irish citizens,” according to Mr. Murray. Continue reading “‘People Crying Out for a Platform’ – Corrib Ruling Shows Need for Civic Platform” →

A Decade of Betrayal

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no to war in iraq <insert image>

A report launched in May 2007 by Afri on the eve of the General Election, examines the dramatic changes that have taken place in Irish foreign and defence policy over the past ten years.

This period – 1997-2007 – has seen the increasing militarisation of Ireland’s foreign and defence policy. The report claims this is most starkly evidenced in the almost daily use of Shannon airport in support of the illegal United States-led wars on Iraq and Afghanistan, but also in the inadequacy of the Government’s response to evidence that Shannon has been used as part of a US kidnapping and torture circuit. The ongoing integration of the Irish Defence Forces into non-UN military structures such as NATO’s PfP and the EU’s Battlegroups signals, the report argues, a departure from a truly internationalist and peace-promoting vision. Finally, the report documents the Government’s lack of urgency in at least regulating Ireland’s significant arms trade. Continue reading “A Decade of Betrayal” →