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Ken Loach supports Irish Ploughshares Activists Awaiting Third Trial in Dublin

Damien Moran - Pitstop Ploughshares | 21.06.2006 15:18 | Anti-militarism | Liverpool

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Ken Loach supports Pitstop Ploughshares + Updates

While in Cork attending the Premiere of his award-winning film ˜The Wind that Shakes the Barley, Director Ken Loach and screen writer Paul Laverty expressed their support for five peace activists. The five, Deirdre Clancy, Nuin Dunlop, Karen Fallon , Ciaron O'Reilly and Damien Moran, await their third trial in Dublin in July. They face charges arising from the disabling of a US war plane en route to Iraq at Shannon Airport in February 2003.

In response to the question ˜what do you have to say to the Irish people on the role of Shannon in the Iraq war", Ken Loach stated that "we are all implicated, Britain by having troops there and Ireland by providing facilities for warplanes and personnel at Shannon."

Screenwriter of the Wind that Shakes the Barley, Paul Laverty issued the following statement:

"I've always wondered what damage a 10 pound hammer would do to the delicate instruments of a plane, apart from the odd dent it must complicate the circuitry.

I've seen the effect of a 1000lb bomb on a little girl in Iraq who wore a lilac dress. She was on the front page of a Spanish newspaper, El Mundo. Her traumatised father pulled her from the rubble. Her right leg dangled behind the knee from two stubborn sinews. No doubt she died in agony, along with another 100,000 civilians according to the Lancet Report, in the first 18 months of the war.

And yet, to wield a hammer to a war-plane carries a sentence of ten years in an Irish prison. To drop a thousand pound bomb on civilians carries no consequences at all.

For every blow of that hammer to the blunt nose of an inanimate object a thousand delicate complex individuals were blown to bits by Western bombs.

I'd like to thank Deirdre, Nuin, Karen, Ciaron and Damien for engaging our imagination and reminding us of alternative uses for ordinary household items.

Just think what we coud do with a toilet brush."

Paul Laverty, Screenwriter, Wind that shakes the Barley, 20th June. Cork.

For photos contact Pro-Vision at 021 4272884

Related Link:  http://www.peaceontrial.com

Damien Moran - Pitstop Ploughshares

Additions

Call for Solidarity Vigils around Pitstop Ploughshares re-retrial, July 5th

21.06.2006 15:43

Call for Solidarity Vigils on July 5th. at Irish Embassies, Consuls & Sites of Significance

At our past court appearances solidarity vigils against ongoing Irish complicity in the war on Iraq have been held at Irish Embassies & Consuls in Washington DC, New York City, Houston, Melbourne, Vancouver, London, Dili (East Timor), Brussels, Gotenburg,, Auckland. Also solidarity vigils were held at Bishop Romero's grave (El Salvador), the Berlin Gate, US Air Force Base at Christchurch Airport (New Zealand), Shannon Airport, Scales of Justice statue Brisbane, statue in Budapest and an Irish theme bar in Amsterdam.

Before our first trial in march last year, a group of nonviolent activists staged a solidarity sit in at the Irish Embassy in London. This got a lot of media attention as it was such a ''man bites dog story'' after 30 years of Irish protests at British Embassies, we have a crew that stages a British protest at an Irish Embassy!

If you have friends travelling or living in other parts of the world. Approach them to stage a solidarity vigil on the first day of our trail at an Irish Embassy or Consul. Have them email us about their gathering'

The list of consuls & embassies, can be found on the link below.........

Related Link:  http://foreignaffairs.gov.ie/embassies/?m=e

If you want to find out if there is a solidarity vigil plannes for your area please contact us at ploughsharesireland{at}yahoo{dot}ie


Link to Photos of Loach, Laverty & 2 Pitstop Ploughshares defendants:

 http://www.indymedia.ie/article/76749#comment154759


URGENT DONATIONS REQUIRED
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To bring international witnesses to testify for the Pitstop Ploughshares 5 Defence.
To help cover costs of printing, phone, fax, transport, accom., food, etc.

*Wire money to:
Ploughshares Defence Fund, Bank of Ireland, Ballygall Rd.
Finglas, Dublin 11, IRELAND


Bank Codes - IBAN: IE18BOFI90055118972983
BIC No./Switch Code: BOFIIE2D


or
*Lodge money at any Bank of Ireland Branch

Bank Current A/C No.: 80965573

Sort Code: 900551


or
*Send Cheques to 'Ploughshares Defence Fund' can be mailed to C/- Ploughshares Defence Fund, 134 Phibsborough Rd. Dublin 7 IRELAND



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