Press Releases & Updates 2002

Eoin Dubsky has been released on his own bail but ordered to stay away from Shannon Airport.

The man, from Gorey, County Wexford, was detained and questioned at Shannon Garda Station all day after being arrested by airport police at around 5am.

He was charged at the District Court in Gort, County Galway, with causing criminal damage to a US Hercules military aircraft.

Gardai opposed the granting of bail because they feared he would re-offend if released.

Judge Joseph Mangan remanded the accused on his own bail of ¤200, but attached strict conditions.

Mr Dubsky is not allowed to go within five miles of Shannon Airport or its perimeter fence or he will be re-arrested.

He was remanded to appear at Shannon District Court on 17 October.

A second 27-year-old man from Limerick city has been released and a file is being sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

The leader of the Green Party, Trevor Sargent, had earlier called for the immediate release of the two.

He suggested the Taoiseach should be arrested as he was flouting the Constitution by allowing foreign military aircraft to use Irish airports.

Aer Rianta is still carrying out an investigation into how security was breached at Shannon.

From http://www.rte.ie/news/2002/0904/Sh....

This is from the Refueling Peace homepage: "As global citizens we will endeavour to monitor and stop US military refueling in Ireland. We will expose details of US military planes stopping-over here. We will openly, accountably, safely and peacefully disrupt these operations, which are mostly at Shannon airport."

The action was part of the ’Refueling Peace’ project: a direct action campaign to monitor and stop US military flights in Ireland (see http://refuelingpeace.org/). Tim Hourigan, who was also arrested yesterday, has been doing most of the meticulous monitoring -- many of the planes are chartered civilian jets and come in at night for example.

I’d like to thank especially everyone from Trident Ploughshares and people who have taken part in other ploughshares actions -- you have inspired me to work on this campaign and do the action on Tuesday.

For almost a year I have been campaigning against the so-called ’war on terrorism’, and Ireland’s participation therein in every way that I could think of. Following months of preparation, and with the prospect of a huge war on Iraq immanent, I entered the airport and painted the US military plane as a small symbolic act of disarmament.

What I painted: I had terrible trouble with the flourescent red spray-paint... most of it came out it blobs. :-O) Still I did get to write "NO WAR" and draw two large peace (CND) symbols on the US Air Force "Hercules" KC-130, which is a mid-air refueling plane which can be used though for troop/cargo transport or dropping "daisy-cutter" bombs even. I sprayed paint on one of the windscreens too (pilot can’t take off until that is removed). Finally -- just before I reviewed my work and called airport security -- I affixed the prefix "DIS" in red paint to the stencil-writing beside the door that read "ARMAMENT:".

The painting/arrest part of this has gone brilliantly with loads of support and great media. My solicitor is very supportive too and will help me continue my witness in court as I had intended. I hope to take the opportunity when I am on trial for "criminal damage to a USAF aircraft at Shannon Airport" to use the "necessity defence" that you may have heard of from some ploughshares actions. I hope to show that the immanent war against Iraq, and planning for it, is a crime against peace. Hopefully we can also show that the so-called ’war on terrorism’ generally (from the bombing of Afghanistan to Camp X-Ray in Cuba) is illegal too. And of course this would mean that the Irish state is involved in a criminal conspiracy...

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