THE actions of dozens of US troops who ‘gate-crashed’ a wedding in Clare last week, have been criticised by a leading anti-war campaigner who has described the matter as another clear breach of Irish neutrality.
The incident occurred at the Clare Inn Hotel near Newmarket-on-Fergus last Wednesday where almost 300 troops stayed for two nights after the aircraft on which they were travelling to Iraq was grounded at Shannon Airport by technical problems.
After wandering into the function room where the wedding reception was being hosted, they were allowed to stay and enjoy the festivities despite the best efforts of their commanding officer to remove them from the hall.
One wedding guest said, “The soldiers were around the hotel all day. We saw them walking around the grounds, chatting in groups outside and in the bar but we were surprised when they came in to the wedding that night.
“You could see that some guests were very uncomfortable with the soldiers being there, especially wearing their uniforms. But they were in great form and seemed to enjoy themselves.”
Retired Irish army officer and international secretary of the Peace and Neutrality Alliance, Dr Edward Horgan, has described the actions of US troops as highly inappropriate.
“Again we see how the Irish and US Governments blatantly breach Irish neutrality. Ireland continues to participate in a foreign war and it is highly inappropriate that US soldiers would appear in an Irish hotel or in Shannon Airport in uniform. Remember, the US has a reputation for gate-crashing weddings. They have bombed wedding parties in Afghanistan and killed dozens of people,” Dr Horgan said.
Troops are regularly accommodated in local hotels if an aircraft suffers technical issues while en route to or from the US. Personnel are not allowed leave the vicinity of the hotel where they are staying but have in the past breached the rule.
When contacted yesterday (Monday), the hotel declined to comment on the matter.
BTW: I don't mind US troops using Shannon or even using our hotels, they are more than welcome as far as I am concerned. After all "Ceade mile a failte", what ever happened to that phrase? This article came from the Clare people and just shows you the tabloid quality of newspaper they really are. Very biased commentary by the writer indeed. They only heard from one side of this arguement and failed to actually ask the bride and groom, who it turns out invited them. This was very nice of them to do this and I can imagine it was a great wedding to have.
