Shannon

by iosaf - disobedient pacifist slightly crusty hippy trippy anarchisty muppets Sat Dec 06, 2003 14:46

& I always think that when I hear mention of the Garda spotter plane. Jyzsh the guards would have to go one better than their continental counterparts wouldn't they? Over here and in the other cities I've seen, you get the traditional layers, spotter plainclothes on balconies, CCTV at 5-6metres, masked up and combatted snipers at 30metres, and if you're having a good day of democratic participation, freedom of assembly and speech, two helicopters doing big circles of eight, and of course over that you've the USAF spy planes, and the arms industry helium stratosphere spotter balloon module, and then the satelites almost always a german sattelite and a USAF and a NASA and if you're being more than usually local you might even get the odd extra terrestial alien doing a watercolour.

But spotter planes not a one.

this really is _very special_. Ye are privelaged.

by Ld Sat Dec 06, 2003 14:48

A Galway bus was stopped about 20mins from Limerick and searched by Gardai, they found poster paint, and plastic pipes, both of which were confiscated. The Gardai stated that they could remove these under the firearms act and the owner could get the poster paint back from Shannon station later.

There seems to be a change of plan over the number of roads leading to the airport that are to be blockaded, a protester on one of the IAWM buses from Dublin said IAWM stewards agreed at about !2pm on their bus not to blockade both roads.
I presume there will be a split over this and if there was a plan to blockade two roads people will be determined to stick to that.

Anyone with any more bits of news from Shannon throughout the day please post them here as comments.

by Ld Sat Dec 06, 2003 15:17

3 IAWM buses from Dublin stopped and searched just 15mins from Shannon.
All poster sticks and pipes for posters were confiscated by Gardai under the weapons act.
The gardai also searched peoples personal belongings bags etc...
The buses were held for about half an hour .

by macey Sat Dec 06, 2003 16:20

Aprox 30 black block have broken police lines in shannon, they are currently in the shannon free industrial zone, being persued by the the gardai in her majestys finest riot gear!
the police have been beating back protesters with their shields in an attempt to keep the rest of the crowd of aprox 300-350 people (including undercover police ; ) behind the police line.

by Ld Sat Dec 06, 2003 17:12

It's hard to get precise info but waht seems to be happening is that when the protesters arrived as close as they ccould to the airport they were met with heavy garda presence the situation was discribed as a 'bottle-neck' by one protester.

After staying there for some time the IAWM decided to go back some distance, their group is made up of about 250 people, they are engaged in what one protester described as a "token blockade" at the LIddl roundabout, which is a good half hour walk from the rest of the protesters. One person who was with the IAWM group was arrested. The rest remained and are trying to continue to blckade the road nearer to the airport. at another roundabout. The police as usual got heavy handed here and one police van tried to get through the protesters reversing into a woman in a wheelchair, thankfully the waman was not injured .

A group of about 30 being described as young anarchists with black flags made a dart for the wooded area either side of the road but the cops rounded them up and brought them back to safety!

A protester was told by some heads that they had a load of alluminium balloons which they were going to release into the dark sky above Shannon and disrupt the radar signals at the airport, needless to say no balloons have yet been spotted!

I know this info is a little short on detail to say the least but it's just to give a flava of what's been going on down there.
I'm sure we'll have some decent reports on the day from the various sides!

I've just heard that there have been two arrests in total so far today .

by Ld Sat Dec 06, 2003 17:27

A protester heard over a police radio that someone has been injured , lets just hope it's not serious.

by Ld Sat Dec 06, 2003 17:50

There will be a vigil for Fintan Lane at Limerick prison this evening between 6-7pm

by Ld Sat Dec 06, 2003 18:54

On meeting police on a pedestrian bridge some people managed to get passes the cops and made a "run for it'. The group left mainly GG heads waited for the bridge runners to come back.
Seven were detained and then let go I don't know if any charges have been made against them.
All the police including the robo riot cops were lined up at the last roundabout at Liddl I presume .
There was another attempt to get through cops late in the evening but one protedter who took part said it was in vain, "we knew we were going home".
But he said the day ended on a good-humoured 20min stand-off with the police.

Meanwhile on TV3's report the joourrnalist portrayed the protesters as being shady, 'Embarassed to show their faces', with shots of face covered anarchists and there were several clips of people being asked why they attended the demo, all refused to speak to the batty journo who in turn for being ignored,decided to portray these people as basically not knowing why they were there or unable to explain. typical journo petty shit

*Still no sign of those balloons!!!

by Not a real spotter! Sat Dec 06, 2003 22:31

That was a waste of a photograph! It obviously wasnt taken by a "real" spotter, as it is not a Garda airplane. You are all full of shit and spoof.

by his own violination Sat Dec 06, 2003 22:54

If it is'nt the Garda plane, where was the Garda plane? answer that one

by wild Sun Dec 07, 2003 00:23

u guys rock, well done on a great day, nothing but respect for you, keep up the good work

by de spy in the sky Sun Dec 07, 2003 02:26

the garda plane has 2 engines..this one clearly does not have 2..or have ye all lost the ability to count?
100 protesters...but when iawm count them it becomes 500...

so I suppose yes in IAWM figures that is indeed a twin engined aircraft :)

by Warhammer Sun Dec 07, 2003 04:05

Only an hundred???

What a pity.

[/sarcasm]

I guess most people have realised that their actions last April were misguided and that thet had been manipulated by micro-groups like the SWP.

Glad to see that most people have come to thier senses. What is happening in Iraq is a beautiful thing, we should give Prsident Bush our wholehearted support in this great work.

by Eoin Sun Dec 07, 2003 11:55

More like 400

by David Sun Dec 07, 2003 12:15

That's around 300 people, and it doesn't even include the people who came on cie buses and in cars and people from shannon who took part. I don't think i ever saw all the different groups in the same place at the same time so i don't know how anybody could give an accurate account of the numbers.
There were hundreds of cops there.
Lots of the cops were pricks. Lots of the cops were demandsing us to show them forms of identification while they weren't wearing their numbers. Irony it seems is lost on the ignorant.

I was looking through all the newspapers this morning and i didn't see a single report of the "protest" or a single photograph taken at shannon (unless you include something about shannon anglers in the Independent)

by Charlie - Support Sun Dec 07, 2003 14:14 Limerick

I though the protest was billed as a peaceful event.
Why then were there so many weapons and tins of paint seized at the checkpoints?
Disgrace!
I only wish the cops got the chance to use the new sticks.

by David Sun Dec 07, 2003 14:30

Is that he best arguement you can think of?
There were no weapons siezed, except for some kitchen knives that were taken from people for preparing food.

The person who said the Stewards couldn't organise? Stewards shouldn't even have been there, they did a very good job of sabbotaging any independent action that might have diverted away from the SWP master plan of walking about for less than 2 hours.

I don't know how successful the blockade was but i didn't notice any airplanes take off from around 1.50pm to 4.30pm This indicates that there was at least some disruption to operations at the airport. Maybe the Baloons had something to do with this.

I was talking to (arguing) with several of the stewards as they tried to co-ordinate with the Black Bloc. They were attempting to communicate "the plan" that had "been decided" "democratically"

by Ciaron - Dublin Catholic Worker Sun Dec 07, 2003 16:06

http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=62563&condense_comments=false#comment55314

by Drbinoche Sun Dec 07, 2003 18:04

Thats the dumbest fucking trick you could ever pull. You were basically willing to endanger alot of lives by putting up balloons that would fool with the radar. For fucks sake, what would you guys have done if a crash had happened as a consequence. Fuck it while your at it, why don't you just launch a SAM at a plane.

Seriously, OK if you guys wanna protest thats coll, more power to you and all, but you should not have tried at any stage to disrupt the airports normal duties. Your actions could have had very serious consquences and then your movement would be truely screwed!

As for the TV3 news report, I saw it and I personally thought that it was fairly evdient. I saw a number of the black block guys trying to breach the lines and trying to get the cameras off em, doesn't sound like these guys really want everyone to know who they are and what they are standing up against! Surely if thay are that confident in their stance, they wouldn't give a damn about being identified.

Oh and the Dog that was set free, I am surprised the Garda didn't fine the owner, for having a dog off the leash in public, I personally would have called the Dog Warden.

by Mr squeeze Sun Dec 07, 2003 20:49

...And let the 'post comment' bitching.............commense!!!

by Drbinoche Sun Dec 07, 2003 22:23

OK right I want everyone to provide whatever answer they can. If America had not invaded Iraq and dispersed the Iraqi Regime of Saddam Huseein, what would the current situation be?? In the nti-war movement, what would you have done instead of having America and Britain Invade, what would you have done to get rid of Saddam Hussein, something which I doubt anyone argues was needed?? OK so Saddam was a horrible man and a dictator, he was murdering his own people, and living off the fat of the land. So what would the Anti-war movement have suggested as a way of getting rid of the bastard and restoring democracy or whatever to Iraq. Its an answer I have yet to hear, but what would you guys have done instead?

by Jay Z Sun Dec 07, 2003 23:03

The balloons would only show up as blips on the radar. Even if they were enough to pick up on, the most that would happen is that the plane would be diverted to Dublin. This happens all the time due to excess wind, ice on the runway, etc.

As for masking up, someone told me that they didnt want their employer seeing what they were doing. They worked for a real right wing capitalist scumbag in a small firm, and she was already suffering hassle from them already. She felt if her employer saw her at an anti war demo engaging in direct actions then it would only be another excuse for him to fuck her around more.

Thats just one reason - I am sure there are many more valid ones.

by Lone gunman Mon Dec 08, 2003 00:33

Keeping an "eye" on Moyross.The Garda plane is a twin engined light aircraft called a squirrel. It flies high and is remakeably QUIET. Stuffed full of intresting gadjets, like thermal imageing,active and passive infra red cameras,etc.If it was at the demo you wouldnt have seen or heard it. Knock yourselves out and buy a scanner for the next demo.
iIamused myself listening to the natter going on from Shannon on Sat.

by Lone Gunman Mon Dec 08, 2003 00:50

There are two types of radar here. Primary and Secondary Surveillance radar. Primary identifies most everything within100 +/- miles,eg planes,birds,baloons etc.It can be tuned to ignore "clutter".more importantly is the SSR it sends out an interragation signal to any aircraft.The aircraft answers via its transmitter tuned to the correct frequency as to where its location is.this is it in a basic form. So no it would not affect the more imprtant SSR. The idea of the alminium baloons is a fallacy BTW.It comes from ww2 RAF Pathfinders jamming German radar with socalled "windrow" [Tin foil cut to the correct radar wavelength.]
Only reason nothing came into Shannon at the demo times is there is nothing scheudled to land on Sat at those times.

by Charlie - Me Mon Dec 08, 2003 02:15

David,
How thick are you?

All flights operated normally on Saturday and you didn't even notice the Polar Air 747 landing at around 3.45pm.
In case you didn;t know and Tim H will confirm this, Polar are carrying serious weaponry on board for the yanks. Don't tell lies on this site please.
Lets face it, Saturday did not go well.

by sanity Mon Dec 08, 2003 10:48

>Surely if thay are that confident in their >stance, they wouldn't give a damn about >being identified.

Have you ever been harassed by the gardai, I suppose not. They regualarly build up files on innocent people put watches on their houses etc etc, I've been subjected to this twice in the last year, and they rang my employer, but yet I have no criminal record and am only guilty of being a known antiwar organiser. I've copped on since and now I always cover my face, wake up and smell the pre-facist coffee you complete goit. Its a well known fact that since the coolling down of things up north, the Garda intelligence unit has completely shifted their focue towards investigating left wing groups.

Oh as for tins of paint my galway chums inform me:
1. they weren't tins, they were soft plastic
2. they were non toxic waterbased childrens poster paint
3. they were for painting umbrellas, to add some colour to the event, which hadn't been finished in time for the day.

So go back to your snug mainstream media cocooned little world and watch your nice sterile clean "liberation" war on the telly and don't bother us with your puerile idiotic and uninformed comments.

by Eagle eye cherry Mon Dec 08, 2003 21:48

.The Garda plane is a twin engined light aircraft called a squirrel.

NO,,,, the Squirrel ( AS355N Twin Ecureuil made by Eurcopter Intl) is a HELICOPTER. The plane is the Defender 4000 (made by Pilatus Britten-Norman) which is not that quiet, but yes has two engines, so that's not it in the photo.

The helicopter costs over 1,000 euro an hour to operate.

Dunno what the plane costs per hour are - but it aint cheap. All the FBI style gear that the cops put into it is not appreciated by the Irish Air Corps pilots who reckon it makes the aircraft unsafe to fly.
The folks at Baldonnel are not happy with it.