Ken and I arrived in Ireland with a great team: Enya Anderson, Mike Hanes, Mike Ferner, Ellen Davidson, Ray McGovern and Chris Smiley (who arrived later), had a solid press conference and met and had lunch with two brilliant and great Irish MP’s, Clare Daly and Mick Wallace.
After being arrested on St. Patrick’s Day and spending 12 days in Limerick Prison, where we received support both from guards and prisoners for what they felt was a stand-up action at Shannon, we have been relatively busy, both activist-wise and just enjoying and getting to know this beautiful country. Our passports have been taken but we have no curfew, can travel anywhere in the Republic of Ireland and do not have to report in except to pre-trial court appearances, the next one on May 8th. Our friend and mentor here in Ireland, Ed Horgan has had 16 of those so far pending his trial for a similar past action at Shannon, which is scheduled for next year, just to give an idea of the drawn out nature of these issues.
We have attended a few activist meetings in Dublin where we’ve been warmly welcomed and we’ve been dropping our 16ft by 8ft banner at various bridges and overpasses in Dublin and Limerick.
We will continue with that activity and hope also to have it displayed on the outside of Liberty Hall, where we have good contacts – a very prominent site in Dublin.
We have also been traveling around with our sandwich boards speaking to people, handing out the great trifold brochure that Ellen made and occasionally singing the Galway song with new lyrics by Ann Shirazi. This picture is in Galway, an enchanting city with the friendliest people. (See Ken holding the brochure)
We are staying for the time being with activist friends in Limerick county, a beautiful area and the fourth largest city in Ireland with 90,000 people. This past Saturday we went to the Milk Market in Limerick – amazing. They have it every Saturday and it is one of the most enchanting outdoor markets I have ever experienced. Ken and I intend to be regulars. Our mistake this time was to have breakfast before we went! The food displayed and the aromas are beyond my capacity to convey adequately. Any trip to Ireland would be incomplete without a visit to the Limerick Milk Market.
As much as we are enjoying Ireland, we both feel our place is in back in the USA and will be working towards getting our passports returned to us on the guarantee that we will return for trial. As long as we are here however, we will continue to work with other activists, as best we can to help the cause of Irish neutrality and bring an end to the US military abuse of that at Shannon. (We’ve also attended and participated in Free Palestine events.)
Much gratitude for all the support we are receiving and a big shout out to Ann Shirazi for the great lyrics to "Shannon Song"
If you want to write (always appreciated) the address is:
Ken Mayers/Tarak Kauff
c/o Edward Horgan
Charnwood
Newtown
Castleroy, Co. Limerick
Ireland
V94KCY6