BRISBANE Catholic peace activist Ciaron O’Reilly has spoken out against continued Australian involvement in the war in Iraq and the use of Pine Gap for targeting US bombing raids in the strife-torn Middle Eastern country.
Mr O’Reilly returned to Brisbane earlier this month from Ireland following his acquittal at Dublin’s Four Courts.
Mr O’Reilly and four other activists, known as the “Pit Stop Ploughshares”, were charged with US$2.5 million criminal damage to a US Navy war plane at Ireland’s Shannon Airport in February 2003.
Mr O’Reilly was in Brisbane to support four anti-war activists facing trial in Alice Springs for a “citizen’s inspection” of Pine Gap last December.
He spoke at St Mary’s Church, South Brisbane, before heading to Alice Springs and a protest against the trials of Jim Dowling, Bryan Law, Adele Goldie and Donna Mulhearn, charged under the Defence Act for trespass at the US-run Pine Gap base.
In his anti-war homily at St Mary’s, Mr O’Reilly likened current times to the time when St Mark was writing his Gospel and war raged between the Romans and nationalist guerrillas.
He said, like back then, Christians needed to voice their disapproval of the war and especially against their Government’s involvement in the war.
