Gardaí have arrested to two pro-Palestine activists after they occupied the offices in Cork of an American subsidiary which they claim is involved in the production of weapons used by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in Gaza.
The man and woman are both activists with Palestine Action Eire, according to the group. They gained entry to the Penrose Business Centre on Penrose Wharf around 7am on Monday morning.
The activists made their way to the fourth floor of the multi-story building where Collins Aerospace have offices.
They climbed on to a balcony where they hung out a banner as well as a number of Palestinian flags and an Irish Tricolour flag. The man and woman also also poured a red liquid over the building.
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Collins Aerospace is a subsidiary of RTX Corporation, formerly Raytheon Technologies, one of the world’s largest aerospace and defence companies. It has been the scene of several protests by the Cork Palestine Solidarity Campaign (CPSC) group over the past two years.
However, Collins Aerospace previously told The Echo it had no involvement in the production of armaments for RTX that are sold to Israel: “No, nothing from Cork … this is a commercial aerospace business, which is not part of the defence subsidiary, but is part of RTX.”
Trained garda negotiators, called to the scene, spent some five hours trying to engage with the pair before they eventually agreed, shortly before 1pm, to come down from the balcony ledge.
Members of the Garda Special Detective Unit as well as uniformed officers, members of the regular detective branch and members of the Armed Support Unit were on standby during the stand off but were not deployed, as the two activists came down peacefully and were arrested.
A woman in her late 30s from Wicklow and a man in his late 30s from Carrigaline in south Cork were arrested on suspicion of burglary and have been taken to Mayfield and Gurranebraher Garda stations in Cork for questioning.
The two are being detained under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act which allows gardaí to detain suspects for up to 24 hours before they must be charged or released. No one was injured during the occupation and stand-off.
Palestine Action Eire later issued a statement in which they said the two activists, whom they named as Myles from Cork and Kellie from Northern Ireland, had gone “to great lengths to target exclusively Collins and no other businesses in Penrose Wharf Business Centre”.
Collins Aerospace declined to comment when contacted.
