Protest at Bush visit to Shannon, June 26, 2004
Today, Saturday Jume 26th, 1,000s of people turned out at
Dromoland castle and Shannon warport to show that George W. Bush is not
welcome in this country. He had already visited Tony Blair in Northern
Ireland in mid 2003 for a war meeting, (at which there were similar
protests) but this is the first and probably the only time he will be
in the republic. He was on his way to a NATO meeting in Turkey
to try to push NATO into Iraq, which was scuppered by the
honorable Jacques Chirac. His greeting in Turkey was far more hostile
and got the bulk of the TV news coverage on Saturday night.
A peace camp was set up near Shannon airport and many
people arrived on Friday morning to protest Bushs arrival that
evening. Buses left Dublin City centre at 6 on Saturday morning, since
Bush was scheduled to leave at 3. Due to the amount of road closures /
checkpoints on the direct route to Shannon, we went through Athlone,
stopping at the McDonalds! there at 8:30. Despite stereotyping of the
anti-war crowd as being anti-capitalist McDonald thrashers, the
premises survived intact. Burgers & chips were not on the menu
that early, only hash browns, syntha-eggs etc. which matched the
McDonalds reputation.
The 5/6 buses then continued through Ennis, and a
village near Dromoland Castle. 100's of people were already marching
from that village towards the castle at about 11 am, led by the
Catholic Worker 5 and their "MacBush / Macbeth" props and costumes.
Eventually the buses hit a Garda checkpoint and were forced to do a
U-turn on the road as below.
Everyone got off the bus, placards in hand and moved towards the road
block. Surprisingly there was no repeat of the December 6th
debacle were a squad of guards got on the bus, checked bags and
confiscated "sticks of mass destruction" used to hold up the placards.
The protesters marching from the village barged through the bus crowd
and led the way to the blockade where a warrant for Bushs arrest was
handed in.
Some placards:
In the news lately that Bush intends buying out some Indian
reservations...
The direct approach never fails:
Irish company TOP oil does the logistics of getting warplanes refuelled:
This one hardly made CNN ?: [ Update 2005 - The poster
that unfortunately didn't work. ]
A cage with an orange jumpsuit was carried aloft by the "Black Pope"
and Co. who tried to get it past the garda lines :
Speeches were made from an artic truck-trailer with 5,000 worth? of
rock concert type PA equipment. The low hovering Garda helicopter
could not drown out this baby. That tactic was used at earlier Shanon
/ Dublin protests to drown out megaphone speakers, but not today.
Richard Boyd Barrett, (Irish anti-war movement chair), the lord
mayor of Shannon, a Green Party speaker, and Michael D. Higgins wife,
Sabina (as he was in hospital) proclaimed how illegal the war is, the
shame of Shannon being involved in it, the fall of the UN, torturing at
Abu Gharib and the usual. The point was made how the government
censored the Christy Moore concert the previous weekend by the BCI
(Broadcasting commission of Ireland) 's decision that an anti-war
concert is "political". The BCI is not open to appeal is headed
by one of the Ahern clan allegedly. Does this mean the BCI will
censor any future Amnesty concerts , live-Aid etc. on the grounds that
it's politically criticizing the governments of the countries concerned
??
The crowd then headed back towards the busses, to participate in
another protest at Shannon airport since Bush was to leave from their
at 3:
We were greeted at the Shannon airport roundabout near Lidl by a solid
wall of steel and loads of guards:
Some people had already assembed at the shopping centre, so the 5/6
busloads dismounted and marched off towards the airport. 10
horsemounted police and gardai on foot tried to hem in the group on
both sides:
Another barrier and more gardai provided
the assembly and speech point:
Gardai were everywhere:
and other suspicious folk on scaffolding in the airport:
and in the air:
The "MacBush" group allegedly put a curse on Bush, as did this
protester (100,000 curses on you):
Others made their opinions clear:
(Go home Bush)
The speakers included Richard Boyd Barrett, Joe Higgins, TD, etc.
Joe talked of the hypocrisy of the minister for justice Michael
McDowell condemning the Abu Gharib scandal after his PD party voted for
Irish participation in the war (see Name and Shame section ), and
how McDowell had authorised 4000 soldiers, 2000 gardai, "armoured tanks
& guns" etc. to keep protesters at bay. 700 secret service were
also present according to the Indo. He also intended to review the
"temporary detention centre" the gardai had erected in Shannon airport,
and report back to the Dail. He criticised the Euro40 million spent on
the security operation which would keep Ennis hospital in operation for
10 years. A SIPTU offical also spoke out.
News came through that Bush would be flying out at 3:15 instead of 3:00
since a busload of journalists who would cover the speeches at
Dromoland, had got lost / delayed due to all the road blocks /
protesters on the roads. It was not possible to see Air force one
taking off.
After some singing, poetry etc. people boarded the buses and went back
to Dublin etc. passing the emptying peace camp as they went:
Some critical mass cyclists had cycled from Dublin leaving on the
Saturday previously:
