The Galway Alliance Against War have canmpaigned valiantly against the noxious annual Salthill (Galway) Airshow, which, supported by monies from Galway City Council, this year played host to the USAF Thunderbirds and the UK's Eurofighter; it's seen by many as merely a display of war materiel dressed up as entertainment. At this year's event, a UK Merlin helicopter lost one of its doors in flight, which fell into the spectators, injuring three. Investigations ensued.
This year, however, veteran campaigner Noam Chomsky sent the GAAW a statement of support for their efforts at protest - posted on Indymedia Ireland, it was quickly removed, and more than once. The statement reads:
"It is with deep regret that I learned that the Salthill Airshow is being
converted into a thin cover for support for US-UK military operations,
particularly their aggression in Iraq. That murderous and destructive
invasion is a textbook example of the "supreme international crime," which
differs from other crimes in that it encompasses all of the evil that
follows, in the words of the Nuremberg Tribunal, which are unfortunately all
too appropriate. I hope, and trust, that the people of Ireland will resist
such efforts to draw Ireland into the wave of aggressive militarism that has
been responsible for indescribable horrors and poses a severe threat to
decent human survival."
Though local Galway media covered the statement, Ireland's national media, print and broadcast, dodged it completely. But why Indymedia Ireland, posing as a liberal and even Left(ish) platform, should erase Chomsky's statement on more than one occasion, and any comment that commented upon it's erasure, remains a mystery.
Nothing daunted, on the day of the event - the display of killer warplanes was held on a Sunday, naturally - the GAAW mounted their own concert-cum-protest at Galway's Spanish Arch, with singers, speeches and poetry.