Ireland examining report that US deportees flight stopped at Shannon Airport
The judge had barred the US administration from deporting people to countries that were not their own without giving them enough time to object.
The article said that the flight landed at Shannon at around 9.39pm US time on Tuesday and departed at about 11.47pm before going on to Djibouti.
'I'm trying to establish the facts on this now in real time, because I'm aware of the US media reports,' Ireland's deputy premier Simon Harris told RTE Radio.
'We've been very active, from an Irish embassy point of view, in providing consular support to citizens who have been caught up in these stronger, for want of a diplomatic phrase, stronger enforcement policies around migration.
'I have no reason to believe that the procedures in place for the use of Irish airports by foreign aircraft has been breached by the United States, but I am seeking more information from my department this morning on this matter.'
Asked if Ireland was complicit in illegal US deportations, he said: 'I want to get legal clarity in relation to this before speaking with great certainty, because of the seriousness of the matter.
'But I think complying with US law is obviously a matter for the US administration. Complying with our own laws is obviously a matter for the Irish state and the Irish government.
'So let me try and establish more in relation to this, as my department is.
'There are very clear rules in relation to flights that can and can't stop over in Shannon and what they must do and not do, and we need to see whether this was in compliance with that.
'This is a story that's only emerged in US media, so I'm trying to get on top of it now.'
US flights stopping off at Shannon Airport to refuel have long been an issue of contention in Ireland, as politicians and activists raise concerns that it makes Ireland complicit in US military actions.
Protests have been held at the airport over the Iraq War, Western intervention in Syria, and more recently over US support for Israel during its military operation in Gaza.
In recent months, there have been reports that flights carrying munitions to weapons manufacturers and contractors in Israel have travelled through Irish airspace.
Permission is needed from the Irish transport minister to carry munitions over Ireland.
Mr Harris has said he does not believe that weapons are being flown through Irish airspace to Israel, but he said more international co-operation was needed to find out what is being flown above Ireland.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NBC News
an hour ago
- NBC News
U.K., Canada, Australia and others sanction 2 far-right Israeli ministers for 'inciting extremist violence'
JERUSALEM — Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Norway said Tuesday they have imposed sanctions on two far-right Israeli government ministers for allegedly 'inciting extremist violence' against Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The decision by Western governments friendly to Israel was a sharp rebuke of Israel's settlement policies in the West Bank and of settler violence, which has spiked since Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack ignited the war in the Gaza Strip. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, key partners in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 's coalition, are champions of Israeli settlement who support continuing the war in Gaza, facilitating what they call the voluntary emigration of its Palestinian population and the rebuilding of Jewish settlements there. They could now face asset freezes and travel bans. In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of the five countries said Ben-Gvir and Smotrich 'have incited extremist violence and serious abuses of Palestinian human rights. Extremist rhetoric advocating the forced displacement of Palestinians and the creation of new Israeli settlements is appalling and dangerous.' U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the two men 'have been inciting violence against Palestinian people for months and months and months' and 'encouraging egregious abuses of human rights.' 'These measures are directed at individuals who directly contribute to extremist settler violence,' said Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand. 'The measures are not directed against the state of Israel itself.' New Zealand's Foreign Minister Winston Peters said Wednesday that Smotrich and Ben-Gvir 'have severely and deliberately undermined' prospects for peace and security while 'inciting violence and forced displacement.' 'Our action today is not against the Israeli people, who suffered immeasurably on October 7 and who have continued to suffer through Hamas' ongoing refusal to release all hostages,' Peters said in a statement. 'Nor is it designed to sanction the wider Israeli government.' Smotrich wrote on social media that he learned of the sanctions while he was inaugurating a new West Bank settlement. 'We are determined to continue building,' he said. Ben-Gvir, also writing on social media, said 'we overcame Pharoah, we'll overcome Starmer's Wall,' referring to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. condemned the sanctions and urged their reversal. 'We reject any notion of equivalence: Hamas is a terrorist organization that committed unspeakable atrocities, continues to hold innocent civilians hostage, and prevents the people of Gaza from living in peace,' he said in a post on X. 'We remind our partners not to forget who the real enemy is.' Israel's government also condemned the announcement, which came as traditional allies of Israel escalate denouncements of Israel's actions in Gaza, from the high civilian death toll to a monthslong blockade that led to famine warnings. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar called the sanctions decision 'outrageous.' He said he had discussed it with Netanyahu and that they would meet next week to discuss Israel's response. He said the move threatened to harden Hamas' stance in ongoing negotiations to end the war in Gaza and to cut short Israel's operation in Gaza before it achieves its goals. Benny Gantz, a centrist Israeli lawmaker and political rival to Netanyahu, wrote that he 'vehemently' disagreed with Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, but said the move was a 'profound moral mistake and sends a dangerous message to terrorists around the world.' Netanyahu is the target of an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court last year over alleged war crimes in Gaza, part of a global wave of outrage at Israel's conduct during its 20-month war against Hamas. Netanyahu has denied the allegations and accused the court of being biased against Israel. The Biden administration took the rare step of sanctioning radical Israeli settlers implicated in violence in the occupied West Bank — sanctions that were lifted by President Donald Trump. Eitay Mack, an Israeli human rights lawyer who spent years campaigning for the sanctions on Smotrich and Ben-Gvir — along with violent West Bank settlers — described Tuesday's move as 'historic.' 'It means the wall of immunity that Israeli politicians had has been broken,' he said. 'It's unbelievable that it took so long for Western governments to sanction Israeli politicians, and the fact that it's being done while Trump is president is quite amazing.' Mack added: 'It is a message to Netanyahu himself that he could be next.' Israel captured the West Bank, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want all three territories for a future state. Successive Israeli governments have promoted settlement growth and construction stretching back decades. It has exploded under Netanyahu's far-right coalition, which has settlers in key Cabinet posts. There are now well over 100 settlements across the West Bank that house more than 500,000 settlers. The settlers have Israeli citizenship, while the territory's 3 million Palestinians live under Israeli military rule, with the Palestinian Authority administering population centers. Most of the international community considers the settlements illegal, and Palestinians see them as the greatest obstacle to an eventual two-state solution, which is still seen internationally as the only way to resolve the conflict.
The Herald Scotland
2 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
Ireland's growth looks impressive. Until you read the small print
These figures are, however, astonishing, just too good to be true – and they are. Irish growth is hugely inflated by the presence of large US multinationals in the high-tech sector, especially in pharmaceuticals and digital technologies. The capital flows – investments, repatriated profits, IP ownership etc – and trade flows – imports and exports – associated with their operational activity and financial engineering, heavily distort the picture of what's happening elsewhere in the Irish economy. The lowest corporation tax rate in Europe (12.5%) and other sweeteners have helped to attract these US behemoths. This has already put the Irish Government in the crosshairs of the EU: last year the European Court of Justice required a reluctant Irish Government to claw back 13 billion euros from Apple on the grounds that unlawful tax advantages had been granted. Now, reciprocal tariffs of up to 50% are being threatened by the Trump administration: not good news for the likes of Pfizer, in Cork, which exports 80% of its drugs back to the US for finishing. Unsurprisingly, the high surge in Irish first-quarter growth is in large part due to stockpiling by these businesses in anticipation of new tariffs being imposed. Paul Krugman, the Nobel Prize-winning economist, described Irish growth as 'leprechaun economics' where GDP is 'artificially' distorted by multinational tax strategies. He's right. The main lesson for Scotland is to avoid dangerous over-dependence on powerful multinationals and to try to keep on Trump's good side – at least until things change. Other home-grown development paths are always available. Ewen Peters, Newton Mearns. Read more letters: Swinney should call an NHS summit I recently read a letter, published elsewhere, from a group of senior health professionals who very crisply, in a blameless collegiate way, described a way forward for our NHS and Social Care. In essence they are calling for John Swinney to put aside party politics and call a non-political summit to discuss and review the way forward for our health service. We've had various summits most recently about the rise of far right so surely it shouldn't to too difficult to organise this considering it's the subject uttermost in the minds of most citizens' concerns. Of course these experts are not suggesting that a simple summit will solve all the ills of our health and social care but as the start of a cross-party approach, upon which there are many areas of common ground. Our politicians owe us this but sad to say, with another election looming, I somehow doubt anyone has the guts or ambition to grasp the health nettle and plot a way forward. Come on, John, do as you say and put the people of Scotland First. Ian McNair, Cellardyke. Summits are the height of delusion I know that the SNP likes to pretend that Scotland is a sovereign state bestriding the world stage. After all, as Cabinet secretary Mairi MacAllan told Holyrood in February 2024, 'More often than not, world leaders are approaching the Scottish government asking for our advice on how we have managed to lead the way so successfully on a number of fronts'. If you believe any of that, you will believe anything. John Swinney's self-important contribution to this is to hold 'summits'. Did we ever hear positive results from the one in April when he gathered the not very great or good together to devise a strategy for combating Reform? That went well last week. Now he is to hold a 'summit' on the scourge of knife crime. Some angry Scottish nationalists on social media are asking why he isn't holding a summit on independence, instead, which gives an indication of their (lack of) interest in the wellbeing of Scots. A summit is normally understood as a meeting of world leaders on a pressing issue of international concern. Using it to describe the deliberations of a devolved authority on a serious internal problem is to indulge in delusions of grandeur. Par for the SNP course. Jill Stephenson, Edinburgh. Organising NHS staff properly Iain McNicol's letter (June 9) gives a glowing review of his NHS treatment and he suggests that taxes should be increased to improve funding of this enormous organisation. Not everyone has been so well treated and many have to wait a very long time for treatment. I speak from some experience. Television is full of programmes about hospitals, emergency services, ambulances. et cetera. Even for a minor accident it is not unusual to have a couple of ambulances, a fast response paramedic, the Hazardous Area Response Team, the fire service, a couple of police cars and a JRU (Joint Response Unit). In many cases a helicopter is called in to add to the mayhem and sometimes sent away again as not needed. The scene is a sea of blue lights and all colours of high-vis jackets. What does all that cost and could it not be more economically organised? Then the scene switches back to the A&E department and here you can see a large number of staff milling around, sitting at computers. I don't think funding is the problem. I think it has more do with actual organisation, but with an enormous unionised workforce it will never be sorted out. David Gilchrist, Paisley. Scotland's Child Payment has been a success There can be little doubt that the Scottish Child Payment (SCP) is one of the most progressive initiatives delivered by either the UK government or any of the devolved ones during the last 10-15 years. Author, political commentator and Oxford University Professor Danny Dorling acknowledged this at the weekend when he said the SCP had significantly helped tackle child poverty in Scotland while remaining almost entirely ignored by politicians in England, whom he accused of wearing 'unbelievable blinkers'. He added that for an eligible family, 'If you've got three kids that's about £4,000 a year extra – that means that your children can eat and eat well, I mean healthily'. Figures published in March indicated that 31% of children across the UK were in relative poverty compared with 30% a year earlier. In Scotland the rate was 22% compared with 26% for the previous year. The SCP is yet another example of positive change initiated by the Scottish government and as such, is in stark contrast to the 'change' promised but not delivered by UK Labour. As Professor Dorling intimates, it is strange that there is such widespread ignorance of it south of the border. Perhaps the Child Poverty Task Force set up by Keir Starmer will recommend its adoption right across the UK. Alan Woodcock, Dundee. Sarwar did well in his TV interview They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The letter from S. McArthur (June 10) would suggest that the same seems to apply to political programmes. Contrary to the views expressed, I found Anas Sarwar's interview to be excellent. He dealt at length with issues relevant to the Scottish Parliament, which was what the by-election was all about and declined the invitation to dwell on issues for which the First Minister has no responsibility whatsoever. He answered at length matters which they are. As a Labour voter I was very proud. John Swinney, a nice man, demonstrated the pressures he had been under the whole week-end, and was understandably crestfallen. I am sure that I was not alone in being hugely impressed by the interview with Dame Jackie Baillie as the votes were being counted. Emotionally drained, she gave the honest answer that at that point the result was too close to call. It came as no surprise when we saw the Herald's picture of Dame Jackie in tears. As a Labour voter I thought that, not for the first time, she is the kind of person who gives politics a good name. Sir Tom Clarke, Former Labour MP for Coatbridge. Election count It would appear that the First Minister does not even have a basic grasp of maths – pretty essential, may I suggest, for this role. He claimed that the Labour vote at Hamilton 'collapsed by 20% from 50% to 30%'; this is a reduction of 20% points, the actual percentage reduction is an entirely different figure . Perhaps the Cabinet Secretary for Education could put him right? Mike Flinn, West Kilbride.
New Statesman
3 hours ago
- New Statesman
How Russia became a franchise of the Wagner Group
For several years, during a season of boredom in the West, the Wagner Group, Russia's private military company, became a pet obsession for the media. This was a story of Vladimir Putin's shadowy 'army of cut-throats', plundering Africa of its gold and diamonds while upending Europe's influence in its former colonies. Western audiences were hooked. In 2022, Wagner became a key tool in Russia's invasion of Ukraine and its previously hidden founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former St Petersburg restaurateur, finally emerged from the shadows. The narrative became even riper: Prigozhin led a short-lived mutiny against the Russian regime in June 2023. But it ended abruptly when his private jet exploded not far from Putin's dacha on Lake Valdai two months later. The story is far from over. The group continues to wage vicious campaigns in the Sahel region, now rebranded as the 'Africa Corps'. In Mali, it helps the regime fight Tuareg and Islamist insurgencies, and was accused of executing civilians. Two recent books shed light on Wagner's role in ushering in a new era of modern warfare: Death Is Our Business by the American journalist John Lechner and Our Business Is Death by the Russian reporters Ilya Barabanov and Denis Korotkov. If Wagner's business was death, then it meant a good deal of its own mercenaries dying, too. This was true even back in the 2010s when Wagner was still viewed as an elite and secretive force, the most prominent case in point being the infamous Battle of Khasham in February 2018. In an episode that became the closest, if indirect, US-Russia clash of the 21st century, Wagnerites tried to capture an oil field in north-eastern Syria controlled by American-backed Kurdish fighters. The Kurds fought back, supported by the US from the air, and the mercenaries were mowed down. Some 80 Russians were killed in just a few hours. All the previous Wagner losses, however, were overshadowed by the 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the transformation of the mercenary group into a vehicle to recruit convicts. Lifted out of prisons and put through short and superficial training, some 50,000 of them, by Prigozhin's own estimate, were sent to storm the Ukrainian stronghold of Bakhmut. Barabanov and Korotkov's book presents accounts of convicts forced to fight under the fear of execution. Those refusing to take part in the 'meat storms' were reportedly shot as deserters. Some 20,000 Wagner fighters died in Bakhmut alone, according to Prigozhin's count. Shocking as it was, this practice was not new. Penal battalions were introduced in the Soviet army during the Second World War, guarded by anti-retreat detachments with orders to shoot deserters. Allowing for huge losses to advance on a battlefield was another tradition from Soviet times that was resurrected in Putin's Ukrainian 'special military operation'. 'The special military operation was, in many respects, one giant World War II re-enactment, and everyone got to don a costume and play a character,' Lechner observes. All of this, however, came later. Before 2022, Wagner was less of a cosplay enterprise and more of a private military company with operations in Syria, the Central African Republic, Sudan, Libya and Africa's Sahel region. Nobody was forced or encouraged to fight for it – but thousands volunteered to. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe What made so many Russian men risk their lives in faraway countries? Barabanov and Korotkov grapple with this question, drawing from personnel files included in a vast archive of Prigozhin's corporate empire that was leaked to them, as well as their interviews with mercenaries. The fact that Wagner offered the kind of salaries these men would never get anywhere else loomed large. In 2017, the Wagner salary of Rbs250,000 a month was worth around $4,300 – six times the national average wage in Russia at the time. Even by Moscow standards, such salaries were very high indeed; outside of Moscow, unheard of. The dramatic culmination of Prigozhin's story, too, is a testament to a broader trend. His rebellion against the system was triggered by bureaucratic pressure. The Russian state wanted to control all those fighting against Ukraine, forcing private military companies and volunteer units to sign contracts with Russia's Ministry of Defence (MoD). Moscow did not need the plausible deniability of Wagner, Cossacks and ragtag nationalist militias any more. It was now openly and brazenly invading Ukraine under the pretext of 'denazification' and wanted to have full military control. When Prigozhin pushed back against the MoD takeover, the palace intrigue ran out of control. He questioned the Kremlin's justification for the invasion, criticised the rampant corruption of Russian elites and even suggested that a certain 'grandpa' in charge of Russia could be 'a dickhead'. Grandpa was the opposition's nickname for Putin, popularised by Alexei Navalny. A showdown was imminent, and Prigozhin blinked first, launching his mutiny before abruptly aborting it. Shortly afterwards, he was dead. [See also: Death of a warlord] But having dispensed with Prigozhin, the Putin regime appears transformed by its former enforcer. Practices he pioneered have been adopted and taken to another level. Recruitment of convicts is now run at such a scale that entire prisons have been hollowed out. And bribes to entice Russian men to fight keep growing. Recently, regional governments started offering new recruits 'staggering sums' with sign-up bonuses of up to $40,000, a BBC investigation revealed. Moreover, the mercenary group changed the very way Russia executes its war. Wagner's tactics at Bakhmut 'led to the systematic adoption of assault groupings, and expendable convict-staffed formations across the Russian military', wrote Michael Kofman, a leading expert on the Russian military. He called the process the 'Wagnerisation of the Russian army'. With up to a million Russians having signed contracts to fight in Ukraine, it may be time to consider the Wagnerisation of Russia. Being paid to kill Ukrainians is today among the highest paying jobs in the country. But for its owner, Wagner was never a golden goose the way, for example, his food catering services in Russia were. Instead, Lechner places the private military company in the broader context of Prigozhin's attempts to ingratiate himself with Putin, the case of the troll factory meddling in the US elections being another prominent example. It was about status, the restaurateur-turned-warlord being 'hell-bent on joining the elite', the author suggests. In the process, he helped bring about the new age of private warfare. Private military companies 'helped usher us into the 17th century with 21st-century technology – onto a battlefield in which the distinction between soldier and mercenary is close to immaterial', Lechner writes, drawing parallels between the likes of Blackwater founder Erik Prince and Prigozhin and the condottieri of Italian city states. In the new era of conflicts between global and regional powers, the mercenaries have returned. There was initial hesitation: Western leaders' thinking was shaped by the post-Cold War 'peace dividend', with Russia humbled by its defeat in Afghanistan and the Cold War in general, while America was still haunted by the spectre of Vietnam. In the era of liberal interventionism and the war on terror that followed, policymakers offered elaborate justifications and set tight rules for use of force. Their justifications later proved bogus, and all rules were trespassed. But disillusionment with war has not sparked a pacifist revival. All around the world, not just in Moscow, there is less hesitation about using military force – and less need to hide behind private contractors. The US support for Israel's war in Gaza is an open-ended commitment, as is Nato's intelligence-sharing, weapons supplies and training of Ukraine's armed forces. Israel and Iran, for the first time in their history, have exchanged direct blows. Reasons for going to war are framed in terms of 'existential threats' and therefore require no further explanation. Mercenaries are still in high demand, but their role is changing. What started as a bespoke service provided by highly skilled, well-paid ex-soldiers has turned into mass recruitment of cannon fodder from poor and conflict-torn regions and countries. These include thousands of Colombians fighting in Ukraine, Yemen and Sudan; hundreds of Nepalese serving as the first line of attack for Russian troops; and Syrians being recruited to kill and die in Azerbaijan, Libya and Niger. For this new age of private warfare, the transformation of Wagner is a useful case study. Founded as an elite group providing security, military training and guarding installations – a business model based on the American example of Blackwater – it grew into dispensable shock troops managed directly by the Russian state. If the US's overseas campaigns made the modern mercenary industry a lucrative career path for army veterans and well-connected hustlers, Putin's wars helped transform it into a global form of human trafficking for men from poor regions of Russia. That in 2025 Russian men are as keen as Colombians and Syrians to fight for money in distant lands is perhaps the best indicator of the desperation, hopelessness and nihilism in Russian provinces after a quarter century of Putin's rule, despite all the talk of Moscow's economic resilience. Death Is Our Business: Russian Mercenaries and the New Era of Private Warfare John Lechner Bloomsbury USA, 288pp, £23 Our Business is Death: The Complete History of the Wagner Group Ilya Barabanov and Denis Korotkov StraightForwardFoundation, 291pp, $9.99 [See also: Trump's nuclear test] Related
