The missile destroyer USS Donald Cook has berthed in Cobh Harbour, County Cork. Given the history and purpose of the US military, such visits must be opposed. If Ireland’s neutrality were genuine, the government would not legitimise or celebrate US militarism by allowing warships to dock in Irish ports.

Militarisation of societies, with different levels of subtlety, has long been a tactic employed by military powers to maintain support for their wars and interventions. NATO war machinery often turns up in Cork ports and must be opposed on each occasion. The presence of warships, designed to destroy life, should never be celebrated. Instead, we should consider how populations in the Middle East feel when these ships turn up near their countries. We should reflect on the damage and loss of life that this and other ships have brought upon numerous countries around the world. We should remember the most recent large-scale US military adventure, the Iraq war – in which hundreds of thousands of innocent people were killed.

People Before Profit calls on the Port of Cork to instruct the USS Donald Cook to depart from Cobh and leave Irish waters immediately.