Irish Grannies Rage for Peace (and for Ireland’s neutrality)

Today’s program is a documentary created by Margaretta D’Arcy which includes songs and lyrics by Galway’s Raging Grannies and other granny groups, addresses Ireland’s neutrality and its erosion (especially in allowing US military use of Shannon airport) and provides some Irish public opinion. Margaretta D’Arcy, known to longtime WINGS listeners as Radio Pirate Woman, is a nearly-88-year-old Irish actress, playwright, feminist, and peace activist, who has been repeatedly arrested and served time in prison for her activism.

Notes:  1)  Around 5:26, you are NOT hearing the F-word; the phrase, spoken twice, is “blood-sucking vulture capitalists.”

2)  WINGS has fact-checked the numbers of US military suicides and deaths in war. This source, from Brown University, has figures slightly higher than D’Arcy’s: https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2021/06/24/suicide-combat-veterans.

3) We endeavoured to fact-check the number 5 million deaths in wars led by the US and NATO. No reliable death counts exist for most of these wars, as enemy death numbers were usually not reported – much less the collateral damage from hunger, disease and displacement. However, 5 million may be on the conservative side. A figure of 3 million for the Korean War alone – the first US-NATO joint military venture – is widely cited. This site puts the combined death toll of US wars since WW2 at 12 million: http://www.worldfuturefund.org/Reports/Imperialism/usmurder.html.

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