Press Statement - Catholic Worker

national | miscellaneous | news report Tuesday February 11, 2003 08:22 by Ciaron O'Reilly - Catholic Worker pitstop_ploughshares at hotmail dot com

SUPPORT PLOUGHSHARES PRISONERS BRING INFLATABLE HAMMERS TO THE 15TH!

The “Pit Stop Ploughshares Community” – Deirdre Clancy, Nuin Dunlop, Karen Fallon, Damien Moran, and Ciaron O’Reilly – remain in Limerick prison during the Feb. 15th anti-war mobilisation. The ploughshares disarmament of the US Navy Warplane at Shannon Airport was carried out with hammers and a mattock (a farming implement, not a hatchet).

Two of the hammers had been used in the 1991 “Anzus Ploughshares” disarmament of a B-52 bomber at Griffins Air Force base in upstate New York. One of the hammers was then passed on to Chris Coles who carried out the “BAe Ploughshares” action in 1993 disarming British aerospace fighter plane and military computer systems designed for counter-insurgency in East Timor and Northern Ireland. The hammer was then handed on to the “Seeds of Hope Ploughshares”, four women who in 1996 carried out £2.5 million disarmament of a British aerospace Hawk fighter destined for sale to the Indonesian dictatorship and its war on the people of East Timor. They were to be acquitted be a Liverpool jury. The hammer was handed on to Fr. Martin Newell and Susan van der Hijden who, in October 2000, carried out the “Jubilee Ploughshares” disabling of a nuclear convoy vehicle designed to transport nuclear warheads from aldermaston, England to the Trident base, Faslane, Scotland. The hammer was then handed to the “Pit Stop Ploughshares Community” and found its way to Shannon on the eve of this terrible massacre.

In the Hangar at Shannon we also brought a huge, green, white and gold inflatable hammer with “hammered by the Irish” printed on the head. They are available at tourist shops on O’Connell Street – it would be good visual support if folks brought these to the march on the 15th!!

WE’RE IN HERE FOR YOU, YOU’RE ON THE STREETS FOR US!!!

Ciaron O’Reilly,
Pit Stop Ploughshares,
Limerick Prison.