... Another Irishman, Ed Horgan, didn't get quite the same red-carpet treatment as Bono and his mates. In fact, he had a difficult time just gaining entry into the United States to attend the festivities. 

Unlike the U2 crew, Horgan hales from Limerick not Dublin. He's not a rock star. He is a retired Irish army commandant, an authority on neutrality and international affairs, and a doctoral candidate at the University of Limerick. Horgan, didn't come to sing and dance for the new president but to reason with American government and its new leader.

Horgan and a group of other anti-war activists have been monitoring the flights of U.S. military and CIA planes in and out of Shannon Airport in western Ireland for a long time. Too long, they would say. They've also mounted protests. Some of them have been arrested. Though their direct actions in opposition to the American military's use of the airport receive scant media attention in the United States, it continues to garner the attention of the Irish public.

Horgan and the Shannon protesters are a dangerous bunch not because they're a terrorist threat but because they want the Unites States to abide by Irish and international laws. Their guerrilla theater, at an outpost in western Ireland, may seem like a small distraction, but it can't be ignored by the stage managers of the Broadway production that's moved to Pennsylvania Avenue this month. That's because this band of real freedom fighters is still monitoring the secret and not-so-secret U.S. military flights at Shannon airport, flights that have continued since Obama took his oath of office. ...

read more:  http://survivethejivealive.blogspot.com/2009/01/day-10-tale-of-two-irish...