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TJ Flynn
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 FUNNY how you sometimes stumble on a little point of information from times past that has a relevance to the present day – not when you’re looking for that information but purely by accident when it somehow appears from nowhere and stares you in the eye.
One such occasion was last Thursday in the Local Studies section of the Clare Library Service, known affectionately by every newspaper and microfilm worm out there as The Manse.
Yours truly was there last Thursday morning dipping into the archives of some sporting history when trying to dig up that old story about the time when graves were dug in the Kilkishen hurling field before the infamous 1962 Clare Cup final between Newmarket-on-Fergus and Sixmilebridge.
Mission was accomplished in that regard, but it was another article relating to Shannon Airport that really caught the eye. An article that has a modern-day context given Barack Obama’s recent election as the 44th president of America.
All to do with the fact that on Sunday, Obama, in his first major interview since polling day, said that upon taking office he would close Guantanamo Bay and ban torture by the American military.
It was one of his pre-election promises and he’s not about to renege on that commitment if his words are anything to go by.
“I have said repeatedly that I intend to close Guantanamo, and I will follow through on that,” he said. “I have said repeatedly that America doesn’t torture. And I’m gonna make sure that we don’t torture. Those are part and parcel of an effort to regain America’s moral stature in the world,” he added.
It’s a very welcome move, especially in Clare given that Shannon Airport has for a long time been suspected of being a transit stop for American warplanes engaged in extraordinary rendition.
Obama’s pronouncement comes soon after the Irish Government made a commitment and guarantee to approach the incoming US administration on this thorny issue of extraordinary rendition.
Of course, it was a long time coming, but according to Amnesty International the move will finally pave the way for the gardaí and airport authorities to have the power to search and inspect aircraft.
According to Amnesty’s executive director in Ireland, Colm O’Gorman, the belated move by the Government represented “a great day for human rights organisations both in Ireland and abroad”.
Under the initiative, a cabinet committee on the proposals has been established made up of senior ministers including Green Party leader John Gormley and the Foreign Affairs Minister Micheál Martin
All well and fine, you may say, but nothing to do with a little newspaper cutting from the winter of 1962.
Thing is, that cutting from 1962 serves to expose how far the Government has regressed and sold out in terms of protecting the sovereignty of so-called neutral Ireland.
You see, the power to search planes at Shannon has been there since 1962 – since the month after the Cuban Missile Crisis to be exact.
All because in November ’62 the Government acquired powers under the International Civil Aviation Convention to ensure that the country’s airports would not be sued in relation to the carriage of war materials.
“The new powers enable the authorized officers of the minister to search aircraft of other contracting states to ensure that no munitions or implements of war are carried in or above the territory of the state,” it was revealed.
“In view of the present international situation, it is clearly essential that the terms of the 1944 Convention should be strictly observed and that it should be placed beyond doubt that Irish airports are not being used in contravention of the Convention.
“The powers of search accorded by the Convention and confirmed by Irish law will be exercised at Shannon Airport,” it added.
And all along when tortured prisoners, who were weapons of war in George W Bush’s world, were passing through Shannon, the Irish Government sat dumb and silent, content to collect the Yankee dollar instead of doing its bit for human rights.
I supposed one shouldn’t really be surprised.
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Ball Hop with Marty Morrissey 
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