Good demo at Shannon on Saturday

national | miscellaneous | news report Sunday April 13, 2003 23:56 by John - None

Good demo in Shannon on Saturday

There was a good turnout at Shannon for last Saturday's IAWM demonstration, though it's fair to say that the numbers were a bit below people's expectations. Possibly just under a thousand attended (maybe about 800) but there was a good spirit to the event and groups came from all over the country. I spotted banners from Dingle, Drogheda, Dublin, Cork, Galway, Donegal, Clonakilty, Offaly (I think!), and elsewhere.

There was a huge presence of gardai throughout the day and all the coaches entering Shannon were stopped and searched. The town centre was full of gardai (on every corner) and the Dublin horsemen of the apocalypse were also present, as was the gardai helicopter. Out at the airport there were riot squads and aer rianta fire tenders on standby.

The mood of the march was very good and it left for the airport around 2.30pm. Good spread of banners. I saw banners from all the left groups, though (and I'll be jumped for this!) I didn't see any anarchist banners present. There were one or two anarchist flags. The Green Party and the Labour Party seemed to be there in numbers, and there were quite a few SWP and SP paper sellers floating about. Apart from the political groups, there seemed to be a good few from ngo-type organisations. Truthfully though, this demo was probably mostly made up of politicos and anti-war activists. Not a huge turnout from either Limerick or Shannon, which was disappointing.

Out at the airport (and along the way) there was plenty of slogan-shouting. Patricia McKenna, Aonghus O'Snodaigh, and some others had come down by plane and they staged a simultaneous protest inside the terminal. They later emerged to join the main rally.

The rally itself was addressed by the usual types. The exception was an American Vietnam vet. who spoke about his own experiences and claimed that the US soldiers, like himself, would eventually turn against the war. I thought some of the speeches were quite good (e.g. Joe Higgins and Patricia McKenna) but, I suppose, because I've heard these people before, and generally knew their position, I didn't pay much attention at that stage.

As the rally was proceeding, we were constantly photographed and filmed by gardai standing on a nearby roof. This was slightly irritating and, obviously, a complete fucking waste of taxpayers money.

Overall, it was a good demo and the airport was disrupted for the time it was going on. The gardai looked pretty uncomfortable and nobody in the terminal (unless they were deaf) could have missed what was going on outside. Also, there were some great songs at the rally and I wonder if this might be emphasised more in future. What about an anti-war concert outside the door of the terminal?? Rock on.