Dr. Karen Devine:

Exactly. They would have been prohibited and that is what a neutral state is supposed to do. The Government has been disingenuous in two aspects. First, once the war broke out in 2003, when the US invaded Iraq, the Government kept referring to the fact that it had always allowed US planes to refuel at Shannon. It did not distinguish between the fact that there was a war going on and it was allowing planes to assist a war effort by facilitating these landings, whereas previously there was not a war going on, and the law on neutrality comes into effect once war is declared. That is one aspect about which the Government was disingenuous. The second aspect has slipped my mind.