Shannon Activist Threatened With Arrest if He Attends Future Protests

national | miscellaneous | news report Monday June 02, 2003 16:49 by Adam adam at gluaiseacht dot org

Aer Rainta Goes Back on Assurances to High Court

In a clear threat that they will be arrested if they attend the upcoming protest at Shannon Airport, at least one of the members of the Shannon Peace Camp was today served with legal papers by Aer Rainta.

The papers threaten that "any further breaches" of the injunction against him will result in their seeking "his committal". This is despite the fact that he has not breached the injunction in the past - unless you count attending organised demos at the airport, something which Aer Rainta claimed at the time he would be able to do.

The injunction was sought by Aer Rainta immediately after the disbanding of the Peace Camp. Under it's terms the named individuals are banned from "trespassing" on Aer Rainta land at Shannon Airport, including the land where the Peace Camp was formerly located. The affidavit from the senior Aer Rainta person at Shannon which accompanied the application for the injunction states that Aer Rainta was not seeking to limit anyone's right to protest. This was reiterated during the hearing before the High Court, at which counsel for the Airport gave an assurance that they were not seeking to prevent anyone from attending "organised protests", merely from trespassing. It was on this basis that a number of the people named decided not to contest the injunction.

Since then, I know from personal experience that those individuals have been extremely careful not to trespass on Aer Rainta land but have continued monitoring the military use of the airport from public roads and footpaths. At the last protest at the airport, on April 12, Garda Superintendent Kerrin tried to use the threat of the injunction against several people, but backed down when shown the actual papers, specifically the statement referred to above from the accompanying affidavit.

Whether this latest threat is a similar bluff or not remains to be seen. It's legality has to be questionable, to say the least, in the light of the assurances given to the High Court in January but it is clearly another sign of the increasingly belligerent attitude being taken by the authorities towards peace activists since the war "started".