(Alt é seo ónár bhfoireann Gaeltachta.  Is féidir leat an bunleagan as Gaeilge a léamh anseo.)

A 91-YEAR-OLD woman has been walking for almost a fortnight, making her way from Shannon Airport to Dublin to meet the Taoiseach and appeal to him to protect Ireland’s neutral status.

Lelia Doolan, a film producer and rights activist, began her walk on 31 March and today  she walked from Naas to Rathcoole in Dublin, with her goal being to reach the capital tomorrow and the Government Buildings on Wednesday.

Her aim is to meet with the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste to raise with them the threat posed to Ireland’s neutrality by the ongoing use of Shannon Airport by United States military forces as a stopover on their way to conflict zones in the Middle East.

“We’re meeting the most amazingly delightful, eccentric, convivial characters along the way, and it’s really been very heartening to tell you the truth – I think it just really shows the strength of Irish solidarity in relation to our neutrality,” said Lelia, speaking to The Journal.

She referred to the occasions on which referendums on EU treaties were rerun after being rejected the first time. “We were not asked to vote again on Lisbon and Nice for nothing — and we did not like it — but we were told that our neutrality was not under threat.”

Doolan said there has been an agreement in place since 1974 under which the United States was permitted to use Shannon Airport as a stopover between America and conflict zones around the world, but that many people were unaware of it.

She said that many people had taken action against the use being made of Shannon Airport and had ended up before the courts as a result. Her friend Margaretta D’Arcy, who passed away last year, had served time in prison after being convicted of involvement in an attack on a US military aircraft.

“In any case, this activism would not be necessary if the Government had the simple courage to refuse US military forces,” she said. “If it were your home and you invited friends to visit, you would expect them to leave their guns at the door.”

Doolan has written two letters to the Taoiseach making the case, but has yet to receive a response to her appeal.

She said she was concerned that we were in the middle of a world war without it being declared, referring to the war being waged by the US and Israel against Iran. “I refuse to call it the ‘Iran war’ because what is involved is a war by the US and Israel on Iran — though, of course, I am not someone who supports the regime in Iran either.”

Last year, Doolan and her friend Margaretta D’Arcy returned honorary degrees they had received from the University of Galway to the institution, in protest at the university’s links with the Israeli institution Technion. She and D’Arcy spent time camping outside the Dáil in 2024 to put pressure on the Government to pass the Occupied Territories Bill.

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Back in the 1960s, Doolan resigned from her position as a producer at RTÉ in protest at the broadcaster’s commercial policies. She founded the first journalism training course at the College of Commerce in Rathmines and also taught on a communications course run by the University of Galway. She was a co-producer of the 1980s film Reefer and The Model, and she also served as chairperson of the Irish Film Board.

To mark her 90th birthday almost two years ago, Doolan parachuted from a plane. 

Lelia and her fellow walkers will converge at Dublin Castle at 9.30 am on Wednesday, making their way to Government Buildings where Lelia hopes to meet the Taoiseach. She is extending an invitation to anyone who would like to take a “positive action” in support of neutrality to join her.

The Journal’s Gaeltacht initiative is supported by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.