The original Black Shamrock campaign was launched in 2006, prompted by a need to make visible citizen opposition to a series of Government-sanctioned attacks on Ireland’s neutrality. These attacks included the use of Shannon Airport by US military on their way to and from wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, and for stopover flights engaged in illegal rendition. 

The symbol also highlighted resistance to Government-sanctioned investment in defence software, notably the arrival of the arms company Raytheon to Derry, sold to us as “inward investment”  thanks to the peace process.

Since 2006, the Black Shamrock symbol and campaign has taken on a life of its own as a national and international peace symbol.  It was used to generate funds for a variety of peace campaigns, and extended to solidarity with earth protectors campaigning against fracking in Leitrim.  Over 50,000 are already in circulation!  

In spite of peace activists’ efforts, the arms trade has managed to embed itself more within our economies across the island, while pushing the European Union towards increased militarisation. This trend is being resisted by growing popular demands for a new vision of human security founded on Human Rights, Climate Justice, the Rights of Nature and a post-extractivist vision of prosperity and human welfare. 

In 2022, we also joined with supporters of the Downpatrick Declaration in calling for a reaffirmation of the Republic of Ireland’s constitutional commitment to:

• “the pacific settlement of international disputes...[and] the generally recognised principles of international law.” (Article 29)

• the Declaration of Support for the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, in which leaders on both parts of the island endorsed “exclusively peaceful means of resolving differences on political issues” and rejected “any use or threat of force”. (Declaration of Support, section 4). 

The Black Shamrock was first launched a few days before St Patrick’s Day 2006 to express our collective nausea as Taoiseach Bertie Ahern travelled to the White House to give George W Bush a bowl of shamrocks, effectively giving him Irish cover while he illegally bombed Iraq and Afghanistan. 

The ongoing genocide in Gaza - enabled by Western powers - dramatically underlines the urgency of the objectives of the Black Shamrock campaign.