Ireland Strike Action News
19th March 2003

GWS in Ireland continues to take actions to stop the war including pickets of army barracks, garda stations, taking part in work stoppages, demonstrations, road blockages and occupations of offices of politicians and political parties who support war. We have been calling for other sectors of the movement to do the same and this has started to happen now.

On the day before the war began, Wednesday , the Strike held a picket and grassroots women's speak-out of the army barracks in Renmore, Galway to call the Irish army to refuse to serve the warmongers by protecting the US warplanes refuelling at the civilian airport at Shannon, to refuse to break international law and breach the Irish constitution which says that Ireland is a neutral country and to refuse to be participants in Bush and Blair's war crimes. 6 women and a girl were confronted with 8 uniformed Gardai [police] and further Gardai concealed in a police van nearby. Overkill again, just like our Strike at Shannon on 8th March.

We walked to and fro obstructing the road to the barracks with placards reading 'invest in caring not killing', 'mothers say no war', 'Irish army and Gardai - refuse to serve the warmongers at Shannon!' and 'Irish army and Gardai - supporting war crimes at Shannon! Are you paid enough?'. One of us spoke with soldiers through the gates of the barracks who said they had been ordered not to comment to us women [their relatives!] and a senior officer said the barracks had no comment on whether troops from there would be used for duty at Shannon.

Our picket was removed from this area and moved further back by Gardai who prevented us from going back down to the barracks gate on the basis that we would be trespassing on Department of Defence property - but we were already picketing on that property, we pointed out! At the speakout, one woman spoke about how her father and his brothers had been in the army, her relatives are in the police. They took these jobs because there weren't any others for them and no mother, sister, daughter wanted to see our relatives being sent to kill or being killed in war or being used to support war crimes and the slaughter of people elsewhere. None of us want to pay that price. Women raised examples of women and men refusing to support wars and one woman called on the Gardai to have a 'blue flu' - so called because when rank and file Gardai wanted to protest their lousy take home pay recently and were not allowed to strike, large numbers called in sick on the same day until they won a pay increase and improved conditions. 

Strike women and Gardai had a long discussion about our placards and our call for them to refuse. Gardai said that they were human beings and part of society like the rest of us, they also had opinions on the war and many are privately opposed. Referring to what one of us said at the speakout about the lead given by Israeli refuseniks, the Inspector in charge said that we had a point. But they are 'just doing their job'. One said he would refuse to do anything illegal, he argued that the State's legal advice is that use of Shannon is not illegal though he accepted that many people, many lawyers and politicians from opposition parties have said that this is ludicrous.

Strike women pointed out that 'I was just doing my job' has been the - unsuccessful - excuse of many soldiers and others tried for war crimes in the past. We said  we would not like to be in their position, doing that job, especially after we  discovered in conversation with them that their representative Association has not discussed the issue and that their structure is such that they have no administrative means of collectively raising their concerns about it. 

The Strike picket action was covered by local media, regional media elsewhere in Ireland and was published briefly in the main national newspaper, the Irish Times, which is opposing the war.

Home