On 3rd February 2003, as part of ongoing resistance at Shannon Airport, the Pitstop Ploughshares disarmed a US warplane.
Within the month, three of the four companies contracted to ferry US troops and weapons had left Ireland.
The Pitstop Ploughshares
are currently out on bail. Their trial will take place in Dublin's Four Courts on March 7th 2005.
July 24th 2003:
Global Solidarity with the
Pitstop Ploughshares Catholic Worker, Ireland. REPORTS
Individual Letters of support:
24 The Spinnaker,
Alverno,
Castle Ave.,
Clontarf,
Dublin 3,
IRELAND
Martin Sheen as US president pardons the Pit Stop Ploughshares
Ciaron with East Timorese President Xanana Gusmao
Archbishop Desmond Tutu meets with Catholic Worker Five (23/2/04)Read More
The Pit Stop Ploughshares await trial on charges arising out of their
nonviolent disarmament of a US Navy war Plane at Shannon Airport on
February
3rd. 2003. Conviction carries maximum penalties of 10 years
imprisonment
PIT STOP PLOUGHSHARES Back in Court April 19th
This past week, the Prosecution has delayed the trial of the Pit Stop
Ploughshares by initiating a judicial review of the trial judges order
of
discovery in relation to the nature of US military flights through
Shannon
preceeding the outbreak of the US bombing campaign. The move is
reminsicent
of the British state's response to the discovery order in the Katherine
Gunn/MOD case - where discovery on the British Attorney General's
opinion on
the legality of the war given to Blair was ordered and remains
unrevealed.
For the past several weeks of Lent, the Ploughshares have maintained a
daily
vigil outside the Irish Aviation Authority in downtown Dublin. This has
been
an attempt to remain awake to the monthly movement of 10,000 US troops
through Shannon Airport en route to Iraq. This contribution to the U.S.
war
effort is sanctioned by the Irish Aviation Authoritiy and other
government
and private bodies. Many passers by are shocked to discover that the
U.S.
military are still using Ireland as a pit stop. The public genearlly
assumes
this is a practice, war and issue of the past.
This past week saw a US military plane flyig the skull and cross bones
land
at a Dublin airport. The flag of pirates (privateers) is appropriate in
the
ongoing plunder of Iraq. The basis of the Pentagon's ongoing war on the
people of Iraq has always been to expand power and profit. The
marketing of
the war as a crusade against Weapons of Mass Destruction and against
Terrorism is steadilly exposed with each passing day of no WMD finds
and
Iraq's transformation into a font of humiliation, vengeance and the
terror
of the ilequipped.
Both terrorism and weapons of mass destruction remain serious issues in
our
world. Dublin Catholic Worker's, Damien Moran and Ciaron O'Reilly,
joined
the search for WMD in England over the Easter season participating in
the 50
mile peace walk from London to Aldermaston - Britain's nuclear bomb
factory
www.youthstudentcnd.org.uk ***Apri 9th. - 12th.
Ploughshares/Catholic Worker & friends will also maintain an overnight
vigil
outside the Israeli Embassy on the last night of the 17 1/2 year
incareration of Maordachii Vanunu http://www.nonviolence.org/vanunu In
1986,
Vanunu was kidnapped in Rome by Mossad after exposing Israel's secret
nuclear weapons program. he was drugged and illegally taken to Isarel
where
he has spent the last 17 1/2 years in prison (The first 11 years in
solitary
confinement). The Dublin vigil will comence on ***Tuesday April 20th.
7.30
pm and conclude at 12 noon April 21st. It will be one of many vigils at
Israeli Embassies around the world.
Friends contiue to be arrested and imprisoned for nonviolently
confronting
the terrorist training camp that is the School of the Americas
www.soaw.org
Kathy Kelly, founder of Voices in the Wilderness
www.nonviolence.org/vitw
began a four month prison sentence this week.
The Pit Stop Ploughshares will next return to court for a bail hearing
on
Monday April 19th.
The Prosecution appears for its judicial review on April 21st.
Gulf War, non-violence,
resistance, direct action,
anti-war, Iraq, peace, disarm, disarmament, solidarity,
prison, jail, court, bail, witness, letter, Iraqi children,
warplane, bomber, B52, hammer, war,
human blood, vigil, sanctions, prayer, protest,
Catholic Worker, ploughshares, plowshares, Shannon airport,
Phil Berrigan, Limerick Prison, Limerick Jail,
inflatable hammer, US military, US airforce, World airlines,
troop carrier, pitstop ploughshares, pitstop plowshares,
pit stop ploughshares, pit stop plowshares,
Dublin Catholic Worker,
Dublin, Ireland, Ciaron O'Reilly, Nuin Dunlop,
Karen Fallon, Deirdre Clancy, Damien Moran
