Terrorism laws raise questions about Shannon stopovers

The Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald announced additional terror offences in the Seanad on October 7 and expressed concern about the “recruitment and training for terrorist activities”.

This decision is welcome. Terrorising people is a very serious crime, especially when the tools of terrorism including horrific killings, torture and most serious abuses of women and children.

The Islamic State, in Iraq and Syria, is guilty of all these crimes but it is not alone. Saudi Arabia is reported to have executed at least 26 people in August by publicly beheading them. Drone strikes by the US have killed more than 2,400 people in the past five years, almost half of whom were civilians, causing terror in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia and elsewhere.