The covert use of Shannon Airport by the US military is once again excalating, based on official statistics from the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. This is borne out by our own monitoring of the airport.

Yesterday evening (Saturday May 11th) at 8pm there were no civilian aircraft delivering or taking on civilian passengers at the airport. There were however 3 US warplanes. One was a US Marine Corps Hercules KC130J with mid air refuelling capacity number OH 16-9229, and this was accompanied by a smaller US Marine Corps executive jet, number VM 16-6767 Cesna UC-35D Citation Encore. These two aircraft were being protected by an Irish army patrol, and their crews and military passengers were most likely staying overnight in a local hotel. There was also an Omni Air International troop carrier, registration N225AX which is capable of carrying up to 300 armed US troops.

The official statistics from the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport indicate that there were 55 "munitions of war" landings in Shannon in MArch this year. These are only the troop carriers like Onni Air. They do not include the US military planes like the US Marine Corp Hercules or executive jet which we recorded there yesterday.

The reason these are not included is because the Irish government and authorities still maintain the charade that these are not involved in military operations or exercises, and have no weapons on board.

The US Marine Corp flying around the world without a single weapon on their planes??? Unlikely.

We also got some more statistics thanks to a parliamentary question from Mick Wallace. In April thecMinister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Shane Ross, said in response to a parliamentary question from the TD that a total of 24,521 US military personnel transited the airport on their way from or to the United States between January 1 and March 22.

In the same 12 week period no fewer that 198 requests were made to the Minister's department for permission to carry munitions through Irish airspace. That's approximately five requests every two days.