Unwelcoming Bush In 2004.

In Blog, Politicsby Rashers Tierney12 Comments

cop

Captured tanks, the pissing rain and running around fields being chased by thousands of cops. Who remembers the Ambush mobilisation against George Bush’s visit to Shannon Airport?

The summer of 2004 was a heady age of protest matched with a  huge state mobilisation to dampen it.  Donagh Davis reminds us:

Ambush: 10 years ago today. Camping on motorway islands. Car chases with the Special Branch. Waterlogged tents. Bush. War. Client states. Emptying chemical toilets… (yuck). Being 20.

Indymedia made a slick enough video at the time documenting the madness. If you have it lying around on a hard drive. Then do us a service and Youtube it. Bandwidth was precious, and hard drive space expensive. Til then, here’s a video that looks like it went through the digital equivalent of a shredder.

And a Flicker set from Karen Eliot who captured some highlights.

Comments

  1. I was at the reclaim the skies march there, can’t believe that was a decade ago!

  2. I was there. I wrote on this recently. By the time of George W Bush’s visit to Dromoland Castle in 2004 the government temporally ceded many sovereign powers regarding security to the Americans to the extent that, on that occasion, space in Limerick Jail was reserved for anyone considered a threat in anyway to the President Limerick then was an ad hoc base for many protesting youth. the subject was the war in Iraq.

    The pre-security checks for Bush included a cordon around Shannon Airport, a controlled fly zone, road works and the strategic positioning of snipers but most contentiously security vetting.
    The cordon was enforced before the visit and extended to residential areas and industrial units. This effectively placed Irish Citizens under American authority for the duration of the visit. Passes were issued based on security vetting where PPS numbers were requested from all who lived in the area. A Irish youth who regularly worked as a contractor for a branch of a multinational American company based in Shannon, but had previously been to Palestine as an anti- imperialist protestor, was told by the Irish managers of the company that he did not have the required security clearance and was not to come to work until after Bush left. No explanation on the decision was given and afterwards he was told his services would not be required in future by the company.

  3. I was there. Managed to get in a fight aswell. At a peace rally. Go figure.

  4. I was there, but don’t remember any rain. Only sunshine. I have photos, will dig out later.

  5. Pingback: Ambush 2004 Video. : www.rabble.ie

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