Upcoming Events

National | Anti-War / Imperialism

no events match your query!

Blog Feeds

Anti-Empire

Anti-Empire

offsite link North Korea Increases Aid to Russia, Mos... Tue Nov 19, 2024 12:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link Trump Assembles a War Cabinet Sat Nov 16, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link Slavgrinder Ramps Up Into Overdrive Tue Nov 12, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link ?Existential? Culling to Continue on Com... Mon Nov 11, 2024 10:28 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link US to Deploy Military Contractors to Ukr... Sun Nov 10, 2024 02:37 | Field Empty

Anti-Empire >>

Human Rights in Ireland
Promoting Human Rights in Ireland

Human Rights in Ireland >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link Kneecap ?Two-Tier Justice? Row After Glastonbury Case Dropped by Police Fri Jul 18, 2025 17:00 | Will Jones
Police have closed the criminal investigation into Kneecap?s Glastonbury performance, where the band called for a "riot outside court", prompting criticism of "two-tier justice" by the Shadow Home Secretary.
The post Kneecap ‘Two-Tier Justice’ Row After Glastonbury Case Dropped by Police appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link The Epping Protesters Have Had Enough of Being Ignored and Lied To Fri Jul 18, 2025 15:00 | David Shipley
Last night's violence in Epping is the desperate cry of people who have been ignored for decades, says David Shipley. Violence must be condemned. But if the state doesn?t change course, and fast, we will see many Eppings.
The post The Epping Protesters Have Had Enough of Being Ignored and Lied To appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link From Vaccine Passports in 2021 to ?Britcard? in 2025 ? Why We Need a Digital Bill of Rights Fri Jul 18, 2025 13:00 | Alan Miller
From vaccine passports in 2021 to 'Britcard' digital ID in 2025, it's becoming clear we need a Digital Bill of Rights to protect us from being brought under the technocratic grip of a surveillance state, says Alan Miller.
The post From Vaccine Passports in 2021 to ‘Britcard’ in 2025 ? Why We Need a Digital Bill of Rights appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Why is Modernity so Ugly? Fri Jul 18, 2025 11:00 | Joanna Gray
Why is the modern world so unremittingly ugly, wonders Joanna Gray. As yet another interchangeable block of beige bricks springs up in town, the contrast with the glories of the structures our ancestors built is damning.
The post Why is Modernity so Ugly? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link The Climate Consensus Died in Parliament This Week Fri Jul 18, 2025 09:00 | Ben Pile
This was the week that the climate consensus died in Parliament, says Ben Pile. In the debate that followed Ed Miliband's statement on "nature and climate" something new was heard in the House of Commons: dissent.
The post The Climate Consensus Died in Parliament This Week appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Will intergovernmental institutions withstand the end of the "American Empire"?,... Sat Apr 05, 2025 07:15 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?127 Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:38 | en

offsite link Disintegration of Western democracy begins in France Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:00 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?126 Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:39 | en

offsite link The International Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism by Amichai Chikli and Na... Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:31 | en

Voltaire Network >>

ShannonWatch: Disappointment with Programme for Government

category national | anti-war / imperialism | press release author Monday June 22, 2020 18:46author by icsh - ShannonWatch Report this post to the editors

The Programme for Government produced by Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and the Green Party promises a lot that is encouraging, but on the issue of US military use of Shannon Airport - which the majority of Irish people oppose - it is disappointing. The change of government provided an opportunity to end Irish complicity in the ongoing cycles of war and occupation that have been responsible for the loss of millions of lives this century. The military industrial complex is also the single biggest polluter on the planet (see recent study from Brown University’s Costs of War project). The US. Department of Defense has a larger annual carbon footprint than most countries on earth, and with its global network of bases and logistics networks the US military is the single biggest emitter of carbon dioxide in the world outside of nation-states themselves. [1]

And yet, even though the parties trying to form a government talk about strong climate action, the need to address carbon emissions, and far-reaching policy changes to do that across every sector, there is no commitment to stop supporting the US military in their Programme for Government.

The document states that the next government will

  • Continue to ensure that all requests for overflights or landing by military or state aircraft are guided by Ireland’s policy of military neutrality
  • Ensure that aircraft requesting permission to avail of facilities at Shannon and other Irish airports adhere to strict conditions and that all military or state aircraft are unarmed, and carry no arms, ammunition, or explosives. Any exemptions should be dealt with in an open and transparent way. The State retains its right to undertake spot checks on commercial/civil flights, should it be deemed necessary

There are two major problems with these very weak commitments. The first is that the restrictions only apply to military or state aircraft. This means that 'civilian' arecraft like those operated by Omni Air International that are contracted to the US military and carry armed US troops are excluded for the commitment.

The second problem is that the prohibition on military aircraft being unarmed, and carrying no arms, ammunition or explosives is already stated government policy but regularly breached.

Furthermore, the statement that any exemptions "should be dealt with in an open and transparent way" is something we should not need to see in a programme for government. It's how state operations should work. Sadly it has not been the case so far in relation to exemptions to take arms through Shannon.

This Programme for Government gives us little confidence that things will change.

On the broder issue of Ireland's neutrality the Programme for Government doesn't fill us with any degree of hope either. It says the outcome of a review by a Commission on the Defence Forces "will remain grounded in a policy of active military neutrality and participative multilateralism through the UN and EU". This is confusing, since active neutrality is very different to military neutrality. The former embodies a commitment to the legal definition of neutrality as described by The Hague Convention V, as well as a clear set of values and foreign policy goals that are distinctly different to the concept of military neutrality that successive Irish governments have sought to embrace [2]. This concept has been redefined to such an extent that we have now joined military alliances like the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) which is the part of the EU's security and defence policy in which 25 of the 27 national armed forces pursue structural integration.

As Roger Cole of PANA said in their press release, the Programme for Government is aspirational with confusing and contradictory positions on Irish foreign policy designed to allow a range of interpretations. As far as PANA is concerned it means increased participation in PESCO, the EU Battle Groups and all those other EU institutions that are the foundation bricks for the creation of a European Superstate with its own army.

We agree with PANA, and are not hopeful that we will see an end to the US military use of Shannon or the restoration of Irish neutrality any time soon.

References:

1. Reference: 'War on the World: Industrialized Militaries Are a Bigger Part of the Climate Emergency Than You Know' The Intercept. Sept 15, 2019. Available at https://theintercept.com/2019/09/15/climate-change-us-military-war/.

2. Devine, K. (2009). Irish neutrality and the Lisbon Treaty. Paper presented at “Neutrality: Irish Experience, European Experience” Conference organised by the Irish School of Ecumenics, Trinity College, Dublin and Dublin Monthly Meeting [Quakers] Peace Committee 8-9 May 2009. Available at: http://doras.dcu.ie/14898/1/Irish_Neutrality_and_the_Lisbon_Treaty.pdf.

Related Link: http://shannonwatch.org/?q=content/disappointment-programme-government
© 2001-2025 Independent Media Centre Ireland. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by Independent Media Centre Ireland. Disclaimer | Privacy