U.S. military plane vandalized at Shannon airport

RedBranch, I agree.

Once again: the solution is to ditch Shannon and use Belfast International Airport which has a secure military section. Therebye relieving Ireland of any guilt in assisting combatants, revel in its neutality and having all that horrible 'blood money' to have to deal with.

Irish vandals did severe damage to a privately owned aircraft. Hopefully the Irish peopel will find the guilty parties and arrest them and the Irish airport and/or Irish governemnt will pay for the damage.This incident will probably not make news in the United States, but it does illustrate popular Irish sentiment. Thee are even photos of Michael Higgins involved in Shannon protests.

I agree that the US has treated Ireland like a handy aircraft carrier - sending troops, military hardware and so-called rendition flights there each day (this despite the Irish public's lack of support for George W Bush or his disastrous, economically devastating and foolhardy Iraq war).

Agree with newyorklass, they should stay on the backward rock that is Ireland. Ireland has claimed over the years to be 'neutral'. It's neutral until there's a few dollars involved and then as per usual, paddy turns a blind eye...shut up bout dat nutralitee stuff, de yanks is gonna give us loads a dosh to land dere planes in Shannon.

When you take the biggest, thickest looking morons off the Rathomre GAA hurl team, does it matter if you refer to them as police, guarda, garda, polizei. They are still the keystone cops.

Dan,if we see a garda on the street, we dont call them police officer or officer, We call them guard or garda. Its synonymous to this country like the word Taoiseach. We dont say Prime minister. On your point regarding an illegal war. The Irish fought the occupiers of their country. How is this the same thing as Americans invading Iraq and Afghanistan?

To the protesters....at least you're not speaking German.

ciaradexy – We don’t say the German Bundespolizei or Landespolizei arrested a criminal, we use the English terms, as we’re writing in English, yes? The official An Garda Síochána website states it is ‘the national police service of Ireland’, so that’s official, yes? You have your opinion on that war, as to protest, yes sure…but damaging an aircraft is more than protest…but then again Irish citizens were involved in an illegal war…funded in part by their Irish-American cousins…who may have had sons/daughters on those planes…so it’s complicated, yes?

Why shouldnt Irish people protest about American army personnel transiting through our airports on their way to murder people in illegal wars over oil?

And they are the Gardai not police, yes Gardai mean police but thats not what they are called here. Like the term 'Craic' is just that and not 'crack' which is a drug.

If irish people have issues with American army personnel transiting through our airports on their way to murder people in illegal wars, why shouldnt we protest?

Just to clarify - An Garda Síochána is the national police service of Ireland, so in English it’s OK to call them the police, especially with a non-Irish (but English-speaking) audience, who will always know what ‘police’ means. On anti-US views here, yes they are very common. Some people view everything through a heavy ‘green-tinted’ lens. We don’t like ‘Big Countries’, and instinctively ally ourselves with who we see as the underdog, as this is how we now like to see ourselves (historically not as accurate as we’d like to pretend)…again you can see it in the Israeli – Palestinian issue. Of course we all expect those ‘Big Countries’ to come to our assistance, by taking our unemployed, providing aid when needed, and even for example when the British RAF had to supply most of the Air-Sea rescue facilities (this has now been much improved). We lived under effective US/NATO protection for years, but could never bring ourselves to join in and get our ‘noble clean hands’ dirty with combat missions, preferring the less arduous ‘Peace keeping’ roles. After all, we’re neutral, don’cha know!!

It was'nt me it was them over there THE English

Well, if the Irish don't like the presence of the U.S. military at Shannon Airport -- then maybe they just all stay in Ireland. The U.S. is in the process of making more allowances for the Irish to enter the U.S. -- they should all stay home and just wallow in their own juices. When the Irish want to escape Ireland the first place they hit is the U.S. -- my family is Irish and this display is disgusting.