Allowing 3,000 US troops to pass through Shannon Airport last month radically undermines our country\u2019s neutrality, according to Social Democrats foreign affairs spokesperson Patricia Stephenson.<\/p>\n
Senator Stephenson said:<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no other reason for the increase of US military overflights and troops through Shannon Airport than Donald Trump\u2019s war in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we are to continue to allow the US war effort to use Ireland as a stepping stone towards its military objectives, we will remain complicit in the atrocities which follow.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur Government\u2019s subservient, hands-off approach towards the US as it exploits Irish airspace and airports to aid its warmongering is a sign of its sheer cowardice – Ireland, like Spain, should be explicitly opposing war.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were almost 250 more US military flights over Ireland since last summer than reported by the Department of Foreign Affairs, which officials put down to administrative errors. These standards represent incompetence or ignorance.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow can we be confident that the Government knows that there is nothing of concern in the military planes that pass overhead when they can\u2019t even accurately count them, never mind inspect them?<\/p>\n
\u201cSpain and Switzerland have closed their airspace to US aircrafts involved in the conflict in the Middle East. It\u2019s shameful that Ireland has not committed to the same, and I urge the Taoiseach to take this action with urgency, as well as banning US troops through Shannon.<\/p>\n
\u201cIreland cannot be complicit in the killing of others, no matter where in the world. It\u2019s time to stand up and defend our neutrality in the face of increasing geopolitical tension.\u201d<\/p>\n
April 24th, 2026<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Allowing 3,000 US troops to pass through Shannon Airport last month radically undermines our country\u2019s neutrality, according to Social Democrats foreign affairs spokesperson Patricia Stephenson. Senator Stephenson said: \u201cThere is no other reason for the increase of US military overflights and troops through Shannon Airport than Donald Trump\u2019s war in the Middle East. \u201cIf we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":13968,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[408,797,641,7,816],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-foreign-affairs","category-iran","category-patricia-stephenson","category-press-release","category-us"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n