IF truth be told the long-standing claim of neutrality by the southern Irish state is not all it’s made out to be. It is a fact that successive Irish governments have turned a blind eye to American war planes using Shannon as a stopping-off point for attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as carrying munitions to Israel for its genocidal war against the people of Palestine. US planes carrying political prisoners to interrogation and detention sites, where they were tortured, stopped at Shannon to refuel. A breach of international law. The government did nothing.