Irish Anti-war Protestors Acquitted by Court

A piece of good news from back home and a bloody nose for the coalition government and its craven brown-nosing of the Bush administration. Five anti-war protestors have been found not guilty of criminal damage of a US military plane at Shannon Airport over three years ago. I have not yet been able to find out the jury's exact findings but one presumes that the fact that the current Irish government has openly broken Irish law by allowing US planes to refuel on the way to their illegal war in Iraq and by allowing uniformed foreign military personnel to set foot on Irish soil - in a civilian airport too, it must be added, would have been considered.

I remember one of the protestors, Deirdre Clancy, from my student marching days. She was a Socialist Worker back then but I'm not sure if the Swimmies or the anti-war movement orchestrated this. I suspect it might have been the even more outlandish Catholic Worker's Party. The defence last November managed to have a previous judge in the case withdraw, having reminded him that he has in the past been a house guest of George W. Bush, and attended his inauguration in 2000, and was invited once again in 2004. The judge, Donagh McDonagh had failed to recuse himself at the start of the trial.

Now that the courts finally seem to be on the side of the law in this affair, is there any chance of our government following suit?