
Stephen Collins: Cosa accadrebbe se i russi atterrassero a Shannon e prendessero il controllo dell’aeroporto?
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025/12/12/stephen-collins-if-russia-decides-to-attack-the-eu-irelands-wide-open-back-door-may-give-it-a-way-in/
di Fluffy-Republic8610
50 commenti
The Brits would be quite worried. The Yanks too, seeing as they regularly use Shannon.
Lots of hawks out the last few days.
Whats with all the WW3 fantasies around Ireland in the past few weeks?? Propaganda overload.
More likely to be the Americans
What would happen if North Korea invaded Sligo?
Never mind the reply this idiotic article asking ‘why would they do this’.
Can he explain **How** they would do this?
They would fly their multiple war planes over how many NATO countries to get here without an issue? They would sail their military ships through NATO controlled waters also without being stopped?
Just reading the title alone got me to “What?”. So it’s opinion okay sure but surely the editor should’ve laughed him out of the room as soon as he suggested the idea for this article what the fuck?
Edit: Let me just hammer it home: It’s like China invading Greenland or the US invading Andorra because why not
There are worse opinion column writers than Stephen Collins in Ireland, but few as unserious and predictable.
“For instance, what would happen if a planeload or two of Russian paratroopers landed at Shannon and took over the airport? At our current level of preparedness, there is little or nothing we could do to defend ourselves. We would have to ask for help from our fellow EU member states, or, more likely, [Britain](https://www.irishtimes.com/world/uk/).”
in fairness to the army i think they could remove one or two company’s of vdv from Shannon if they wanted
> What would happen if Russians landed at Shannon and took over the airport?
Then they’d be in an excellent position to catch a flight to anywhere else in the world, as long as it’s a Spanish resort island, a third-tier airport in the UK, or Poland.
There are far more realistic defence scenarios than the Russian military somehow sailing or flying nearly 2,000km from Kaliningrad at the least, bypassing the entirety of NATO, and taking over an effectively surrounded civilian airport with no continuing logistical support.
The join NATO propaganda has been incessant lately
What would happen if Putin arrived in my kitchen and stole my air fryer?
They’d visit Bunratty Castle of course, and use it as a base to explore the Wild Atlantic Way
Presumably a bunch of teenage guerillas would band together to fight the occupiers. Just like in that documentary, _Red Dawn_.
1. We could increase our military budget by 1000% and they’d still take the airport fairly easily.
2. It would an international incident akin to the Cuban Misile Crisis.
Neither an excuse for Ireland not to invest in our defence, but the world would be on the verge if Russia invaded an EU state who has the UK & (debatable in the current climate) the US as an ally
Constant war fantasy from the IT these days. They want dead irish workers so badly
Ok we have a lot do in defence. We probably need to have an urgent debate around the deteriorating western alliance and where we fit.
But some of the media commentary including this is bonkers.
It would be nice if the paper of record could hire some proper security analysts or defence experts.
What would even be the point of that? What could they possibly hope to achieve in the long term from such a manoeuvre?
What if Shannon invaded Russia?
It’s fuckin Russia. We could conscript the whole population, fully trained, into the army and navy and we still wouldn’t stand a chance.
The realistic answer is that the UK could not and would not allow Russia to control an airport that close to its borders, and would intervene if there was ever a threat of that occurring.
Of course that may effectively mean the UK seizing control of Irish territory for defence purposes instead, which we would also be unable to do anything about, but a scenario where Russia controls Irish territory is implausible.
Fearmongering for people who can’t tie their shoes
we have a lot of mortars. What happened when Russia landed in Kviv International Airport? You’ll have to ask the Ukrainians because not a single Russian paratrooper from those sticks was heard from again.
See they were going to land in Knock instead but they refused to pay the €10 development fee.
What would I do if my grandmother had wheels
They wouldn’t do it. What would they gain from such a stunt?
What would happen if the Aran Islands grew to the size of Australia?
The Russians, or Soviets used to land at Shannon because they had a regular run to Havana propping up Fidel Castro if I remember correctly.
What would happen if the Japanese invaded the moon?
The most realistic if unlikely invasion scenario would be from our neighbours. It’s the only invasion threat we have ever really had or ever likely will. Anything else is fantasy talk
They’d soon realise the sheer cost of everything and leave
Been reading some Tom Clancy I see.
At least he had the sense to have the Russians invading Reykjavik Airport, rather than bleedin’ Shannon.
What if aliens landed on Grafton Street?
What if vampires took over Donegal?
What if the USA passed weapons through Shannon airport to facilitate a genocide?
What if the office of the Irish Times was infected with a specific RNA sequence that caused a hive mind among the journalists that cause them to be pro-FFFG government?
So, the Russians – who haven’t been able to break out of the Co.Roscommon of Ukraine in nigh ten years, are going to sneak around the back , get a landing force and invade via the Shannon.
This is fucking low iq sci fi at this point.
What if fucking Martians landed in Cavan??
What would happen if the British occupied 6 Northern counties of our island?
Oh, wait.
What if Russia annexes the entire rest of Europe and allies with the US and they declare war on Ireland as the last free nation on earth?
We’re going to feel right silly we didn’t buy an aircraft carrier or two for self defence then.

Ive seen this movie.
Poor Tom Clancy has been reincarnated in the body of Stephen Collins
I miss the days of Modern Warfare 2 when Russia was a credible threat (in theory). Now they’ve smashed 60km into what was Europe’s second poorest country by gdp, lost the flagship to a navy with no ships, had to get T 55s out the cold war storage and are using donkeys for front lines logistics.
This is getting pathetic tbh
We could break the fence and spray paint the planes. That would show them.
https://preview.redd.it/cf96htewfs6g1.jpeg?width=2048&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=775fbb35ef4e90ccf2c8fd17fb195f4c16d460b3
Mick Wallace, Clare Daly, Catherine Connolly, Tadhg Hickey, Paul Murphy…..etc would be there to welcome them and offer assistance.
They won’t. They’ll just continue to drag cables, spread shit on social media promoting divisive issues, and fuck about with comms
They’d be barging their way through into duty free looking for Irish Potteen
Manufacturing consent…
Russia would never invade a neutral country like Ireland…. or Ukraine
The Ryanair social media team would have a field day
I dont think the RAF would let that happen.
That would be an ecumenical matter.