The motto of Amnesty International is that “it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness” and John Lannon- the Limerick co-ordinator for the organisation- has been helping to keep human rights in the local limelight for more than 20 years.

The Roscommon native first became involved with human rights causes with his wife, Sheila, because they both had an interest in volunteering and began attending Amnesty’s monthly meetings in Bobby Byrnes’ Pub.

John spent six years on the Amnesty National Executive in the mid nineties and now combines his background in software development by teaching part-time in UL and working with online systems with Dutch organisation, AIM for Human Rights.

“There was just a growing awareness of human rights issues in films and the news of the time and we wanted to get involved somehow. There are maybe 600-800 members but there are 50 more active local members and up to 20 who help with vigils, petitions and other local events. We often have petition signings in town; the most recent was about arms being brought into Darfur,” he said.

“Many campaigns stand out. We did one a few years ago against rape and sexual violence against women in the Democratic Republic of Congo and there was another about the intimidation of environmental activists in Mexico. All of them are important but the local focus is now much more on Shannon Airport and concerns we have about rendition flights passing through there.”

These ‘renditions’ began to occur in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre in 2001 and one of the most well known detention sites is Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

“There are several well documented cases and evidence suggests that Shannon was complicit in these human rights abuses as private executive jets used by the CIA and other military flights passed through the airport. Any of the many planes that have passed through could have been carrying these prisoners or weapons of torture. The Government says that assurances have been given that this is not happening but many Irish and EU bodies have explained that these assurances are worthless.”

Amnesty- which recently published its own report about rendition activities-is calling on the Government to compile a comprehensive, independent report on the issue.