Tom Clonan: If media didn't report on drones breaching no-fly zone, the state may never have told us |
MONDAY NIGHT’S REPORTED drone incident raises grave concerns about Ireland’s capacity to defend itself.
Ireland’s principal security stakeholders are silent on the matter. An Garda Síochána, Ireland’s primary intelligence agency, is said to be investigating the incident. The Department of Defence have thus far declined to comment on what happened during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to Ireland last week.
In this scenario, the Irish public have had to rely on the work of security correspondents to try to piece together what may have happened in our airspace approximately 20km east of Dublin Airport. As part of the security arrangements surrounding President Zelenskyy’s visit, two Irish Naval Vessels – the LÉ Aoibhinn and LÉ William Butler Yeats – were on-station, patrolling the waters of Dublin Bay.
It is reported that shortly after 11pm – just a short while after President Zelenskyy’s plane landed at Dublin Airport – four or five military-style unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also known as ‘drones’, were spotted by the crew of the William Butler Yeats. These drones were described as ‘quadcopters’ with their navigation lights ‘switched on’.
If these matters were not reported by The Journal – and then subsequently by other Irish news outlets – it is not at all clear that the Irish public would have been informed of this grave threat to civil aviation.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Taoiseach Micheál Martin outside Government Buildings on Tuesday 2 December. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo
According to reported Naval Service eyewitness accounts, the drones loitered and manoeuvred close to the busiest flight paths approaching Dublin Airport for up to two hours.
Whilst President Zelenskyy’s plane had landed safely at this point – the........