At our regular monthly peace vigil at Shannon we asked for United States Navy C-40A registration number 16-5829 to be inspected. It arrived last Thursday from Jacksonville Naval Air Station in Florida, stayed overnight at Shannon, and then flew on to Chania in Crete. It arrived back at Shannon at 12:28 today (Sunday 12th March) and was sitting on the tarmac at the start of our peace vigil.

In addition to the C-40A there was also an Omni Air International plane used to carry troops at the airport during our vigil. As it was likely to be in breach of Ireland's neutrality, a request was made to inspect it too.

Gardai did not give any assurances that these warplanes would be examined.

Today's vigil took place just one week short of the 20th anniversary of the illegal US invasion of Iraq in March 2003. This invasion was based on lies about the country's alleged weapons of mass destruction, was not sanctioned by the UN security council, and was not in accordance with the UN's founding charter. Nonetheless the Irish government supported it by allowing troop carriers and other military planes to land at Shannon.

Twenty years later, these planes are still coming through the airport, in breach of Ireland's claims to be neutral.

The Shannon peace vigils take place on the Second Sunday of every month at 2pm.