Micheál Martin lied to journalists when he said armed US soldiers weren't landing at Shannon Airport.
Martin told journalists there are “no weapons” passing through the airport – but his Fianna Fáil and government colleague Darragh O’Brien authorised US troops carrying guns to land in county Clare.
The soldiers were on their way to Kuwait – a critical hub for US forces in the illegal war on Iran – and were travelling the day before a US airstrike killed 168 Iranian schoolgirls and staff.
The Ditch reported earlier this month that a US military troop carrier landed at Shannon airport on 27 February before flying straight to Kuwait, hours before the US and Israel began bombing Tehran.
It has now emerged that armed soldiers were on the flight – contrary to false claims taoiseach Micheál Martin made during his St Patrick’s Day trip to the US.
Martin, speaking in Irish, told reporters in Philadelphia that these flights are chartered to bring unarmed soldiers back to the US.
“Soldiers arrive when they are finished serving abroad. They come through Shannon Airport. There’s nothing wrong with that. There’s no harm. There’s no army. There are no weapons,” adding, “There are chartered flights, that’s the beginning and end of it. There are no bases in Ireland. There are no military bases in Ireland, said Martin on 15 March.
The claim “there are no weapons” was a lie. His colleague O’Brien gave the OK for US soldiers to bring weapons through the airport on 27 February.
A Department of Transport confirmed “an exemption was granted by minister Darragh O’Brien for this operation to permit the carriage of the unloaded personal weapons of the troops onboard”.
The Omni Air-operated Boeing 767, under the control of the US Department of War’s Transportation Command, left Biggs Army Airfield in Texas and stopped at Shannon before continuing to Kuwait International Airport.
That Kuwaiti airport is an essential hub for US forces in the war on Iran.
The Department of the Taoiseach declined to comment.
