This article is from page 11 of the 2011-08-30 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 11 JPG
THE future of Shannon Airport should not be reliant on the activities of the United States military.
That’s according to the Labour Party’s presidential candidate Michael D Higgins who said last week that he thinks “it’s very wrong to be saying to the people of Clare that you approve war under conditions”.
New figures have shown that almost two million US military personnel have passed through Shannon since 2001.
The figures provided by the UD Department of Defence also suggested that the number of flights and personnel traveling through Shannon more than doubled in 2003 when America began its invasion of Iraq.
Asked on Friday for his views on the US military’s continued use of Shannon, Mr Higgins told The Clare People