Peace, people and planet, or the path to extinction – that’s the choice

The publishing house „Das neue Berlin“ has translated Clare Daly and Mick Wallace’s book about their sensational anti-war trial in 2014. etos.media editor Ulrike Eifler not only reviewed the book but also used the publication of the first edition as an opportunity to speak with Clare Daly about the challenges facing the peace movement, the dynamics of European rearmament, and the looming extinction of humanity.

etos.media: Clare, your book about Shannon Airport and the Irish peace movement’s impressive fight for compliance with international law has recently been published in German. Your court case, which is the subject of the book, took place eleven years ago. Has anything changed since then regarding the airport’s use as a transit point for the US military?

Clare Daly: The government’s policy has not changed. US military flights and commercial carriers on contract to the US military continue to transit Irish air space and to land at Shannon airport on the way to theatres of war. The Irish government has continued the duplicitous „see no evil“ policy described in our book, and has continued to acquiesce to US desires.  However, the airport is seeing increased attention in the last two years, as a result of Israel’s assault on Gaza and its population. A new generation has been introduced to the question of Irish complicity in international crimes, and – as a result of excellent reporting by The Ditch and other critical media outlets – it has been shown that US planes have been routinely and illegally transiting Irish territory carrying weapons bound for Israel, including through Shannon. That has resulted in a wave of activism around the airport, with demonstrations and direct action by an increasing number of brave activists, who now face prosecution for trespass as we did.  

etos.media: Your trial also revealed that the CIA’s illegal smuggling flights to Guantanamo Bay used Shannon, and that the government was aware of this. Did this ever have any consequences for those politically responsible?

Clare Daly: There have never been any consequences for any of the people complicit in the abomination that is Guantanamo Bay, whether on the US side or any of its accomplices in Europe. The question of Irish government complicity was briefly a political issue in the 2007 election, but any momentum it had was killed when the Green Party – which had campaigned on it – went into government with the Fianna Fáil party and discovered different priorities. One of my most poignant memories of my time as an MEP was when Mick and I were honoured to host an event with the Close Guantanamo! campaign in the European Parliament, and to meet and hear the testimonies of former Guantanamo detainees. I was overcome by the extraordinary humanity of those men. And what struck me was that their main demand is the release of their brothers still wrongfully detained there. They only call for the wrong to end. They don’t call for justice and accountability. They know that’s unrealistic. I am not sure I could ever be so forgiving. I am deeply ashamed that the Irish state is complicit in what was done to them. 

etos.media: What’s inspiring about the trial is the wealth of information you gathered and the many experts you called to testify. Would this have been possible without the strong support of the peace movement?

Clare Daly: Not at all. As we wrote in the book, our action came about because of our increasing engagement with the peace movement around the Shannon issue as TDs, and we depended on the knowledge and wisdom of seasoned and committed activists throughout. Planespotter activists have consistently monitored US transits of the airport for decades, and their work has contributed to international journalism which has become part of investigations by international institutions. Our action was significant because we were sitting members of the Dáil, but we were participating in a tradition of direct action at Shannon airport that went back for years. I would also like to mention and pay tribute to Margaretta D’arcy – one of the icons of the peace movement, and another of the direct action activists around Shannon – who sadly passed away at the age of 91 yesterday. She will be missed, but she was a vigorous campaigner against war till the end of her life, and that example will live on.

etos.media: What role did Ireland’s principle of neutrality play in mobilizing the peace movement?

Clare Daly: It is little understood outside of Ireland how important neutrality is to the peace movement. The tradition of neutrality emerges out of our history. The Irish revolution took place during World War I, and was in part a struggle against war and for neutrality. It became an expression of independence from Britain. Ireland did not join NATO because a NATO member continued to possess six counties on the Ireland of Ireland. Throughout the Cold War and since, neutrality is a watchword for staying out of the conflicts of the powerful, and for trying to build a fairer and more peaceful world where small states are not at the mercy of larger ones. So it is no accident that for many in the Irish peace movement, the concepts are inseparable.

etos.media: Many governments in Europe are currently preparing for war. The militarization of the EU is also being pursued with great momentum. What role do these war preparations play in Ireland?

Clare Daly: The militarisation drive in Europe is being used as a major wedge by the Irish comprador parties to pick apart the neutral policy. Of course, as usual, this is done in a disingenuous way, while insisting that it does not alter „Ireland’s proud policy of military neutrality“ – because they understand that neutrality is popular, and they would suffer for openly rejecting it. But the government continues to adopt policies that blatantly do contradict the stated neutral policy. We are seeing increasing alignment with EU foreign policy, increasing involvement of the state in EU military structures and programmes, eager attempts by the government to attract military industrial investment in the Irish economy. And the government is preparing to legislate to remove the so-called „Triple Lock“ – the requirement for a UN peacekeeping mandate for any overseas deployment of the Defence Forces – so that they can send Irish troops on EU military missions. A sustained campaign of propaganda, carried out by Irish establishment politicians and media, punctuated by regular interventions by figures from the European security establishment into Irish politics, aims to blackmail, threaten and scaremonger the Irish public out of their attachment to neutrality, and to acquiesce to these changes. It has done little to change public opinion – the population recently elected an anti-war and pro-neutrality president. But, despite having no mandate to do so, it seems likely that unless they are rigorously opposed, the government parties will continue to slice away the last vestiges of neutrality.

etos.media: In Germany, a high six-figure billion-euro sum is currently being invested in upgrading infrastructure for war: renovating bridges to accommodate tanks, building underground hospitals, adjusting railway track gauges in Eastern Europe, etc. Now, it’s being said that Shannon Airport, Ireland’s third largest airport, is undergoing extensive renovations. Is this renovation possibly connected to war preparations?

Clare Daly: That’s a good question but I don’t believe so. I’m not aware of the renovations at the airport having any military mobility dimension, even though military mobility is a massive part of the militarisation agenda in Europe. The works at Shannon are largely passenger-oriented. If they have any quasi-military application, it will be that the airside lounge will soon be much more comfortable for the tens of thousands of US soldiers that transit the airport every year, on their way to military bases all over the world.  

etos.media: You were both Members of the European Parliament, responsible for militarization issues. In your book, you refer to the 2016 European Defence Plan, the establishment of a military headquarters in Brussels, the activation of PESCO, etc. How dynamic is the militarization of the EU?

Clare Daly: The situation is extremely dynamic. Processes that were already in train since the Lisbon Treaty have been vastly accelerated since 2022, and „defence“ has been mainstreamed into every policy sphere in European politics. Where is it going? European leaders justify it all with big talk, but I would argue that fragmentation and incompetence rule out the establishment of any credible EU military superpower, and that the policies being enacted will actually undermine the security of European countries. Although EU leaders make a big show of „standing up to Trump,“ what they have really been doing is bending the knee. The reality is that the commitments to 5% of GDP military spending will create extraordinary demand that will only be exhausted with US defence products. It’s a massive transfer of public wealth from citizens in Europe, bleeding resources from social spending, and enriching the US defence industry. It is going to come at the expense of social spending. That’s what European defence policy is – a historic act of banditry by comprador European elites that is making Europe even more vulnerable to further looting by the rich than it already is. It is a policy that has already made us all poorer and more insecure, and things will get much worse if we don’t take radical action to get to grips with it.

etos.media: Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, Venezuela – the world is becoming increasingly insecure, the likelihood of a major war ever greater – what challenges does the peace movement face? Is it „only“ about the question of peace, or should the struggle for peace also become a confrontation against the impositions of capitalism, or – as Rosa Luxemburg once put it – socialism instead of a relapse into barbarism?

Clare Daly: I want to take these two questions together, because they are connected. Rosa’s slogan has only become more relevant a hundred years on. The war crisis is inseparable from a wider crisis of human civilization. It is no accident these wars are taking place during one of the most extreme concentrations of wealth in human history, when we’re seeing a record number of billionaires on the rampage. Capitalist processes are breaching planetary boundaries, with the ever more likely consequence of the permanent breakdown of climate systems and the unraveling of the biosphere that sustains all life. Climate change has been a major factor in numerous recent conflicts. The anticipation by world powers of resource scarcity and mass displacement is present in strategy documents and is driving geopolitical antagonism and deepening insecurity. We are seeing the post-WWII world order and international law being dismantled. It is no longer only barbarism we are confronting, but extinction, although the path there will certainly be barbaric, if we fail. This is the challenge the peace movement faces. It is inseparable from the struggle for economic and environmental justice. Peace, people and planet, or the path to extinction. That’s the choice.