By Cormac MacConnell

I HAVE to go down to Shannon Garda (police) station tomorrow. Why? I have to go down with my ID to collect a car pass which will enable me to travel to and from work or anywhere else for the duration of President Bush’s visit to Ireland. 

Thousands and thousands of us who live inside a 15 mile radius of Shannon and Dromoland Castle, where the president is scheduled to stay, have to apply for these passes. A special office opened in Shannon Garda station this Monday morning for the task. It will be open 12 hours a day.

A month ago the Gardai called to my home and checked who would be staying here for the relevant period. They also took the registration numbers of our cars. 

Yet another helicopter is chattering overhead the sundrenched countryside even as I write. A convoy of Army vehicles passed along our narrow little road 10 minutes ago. 

I’ve just come out from Ennis, a 25 minute drive. I must have seen about 50 Gardai on the roads in that trip. Some were driving hired vehicles. 

On the edge of the baked motorway near the ancient fairy tree of Latoon there was a large vehicle which announced that it was from the Gardai’s Water Division. They must be checking some underwater area. 

At Shannon Airport itself all the manhole covers have been welded closed until further notice. There are roadblocks everywhere.

A modern motorway flanks this area. It is the main road between Ennis and Limerick City. It is a very busy route because it also carries all the morning traffic of thousands of workers heading to the Shannon industrial zone each morning. I understand that all of these workers, too, will need special passes to get to work. 

The side roads around Dromoland Castle will all be closed to all traffic for the duration of the President’s stay. For much of the time the motorway will also be closed. There is a detour through Sixmilebridge, a very dangerous road. 

The Gardai have announced that they will have constant roadblocks on all roads, including the detour route, for the duration of President Bush’s stay. The cost of the operation has been put at around Œ60 million.

Much of this has been expended so far in the painstaking security operation which has been running for the past six weeks. Even the cost of calling to every house in the region to ascertain residency and vehicle registration must have been both expensive and voracious of manpower. 

There has been very heavy obvious security around the main entrance to Dromoland Castle for the past three weeks. It is said that there are already hundreds of elite Irish troops, called the Rangers, emplaced within the heavy woodlands which surround the luxury hotel. 

There is clear evidence on the roads of constant Army vehicle movements, most of them looking like supply vehicles. It is reported locally that there are already hundreds of American security personnel on the site. Accommodation has been requisitioned as far away as Ennis for additional American security men coming in later this week.

The weather is very beautiful this summer. There has been hardly any rain, except at night, for the past six weeks. 

It has been the best summer for farmers in more than 20 years. All the hay has been saved. All the fields, accordingly, are fields of gold, freshly scalped of their crops. All the flowers and shrubs, especially the roses, are in full bloom. 

The countryside is almost picture postcard perfect. About the only jarring note is the constant heavy chattering of the choppers overhead. 

I’ve noticed since coming to live near Shannon Airport that the sound of the jets is quite pleasant, like distant thunder; we’re miles from the flight paths and not underneath any of them. 

But the choppers are loudly angry against the blue skies of a blazing June. They have become a constant presence, as I say, but you don’t get used to them easily. They remind me too much of Derry in the Troubles or South Armagh.

I was talking to the people at The Honk bar down the road over the weekend. The story has been going around that they will be closed down for the duration of President Bush’s visit. They have not been officially informed of this.

The story is going around because they are situated right on the airport perimeter. Nowadays when you go down to the Honk for a drink you find yourself being stopped by the Gardai about 50 yards away from the pub. They are wearing fluorescent jackets. 

They ask you your name and where you are going. It is unusual to be stopped by the police when you are going to the pub!

They are wryly apologetic about the whole thing. Most of them are not local but have been drafted in from other areas of the country, as far away as Donegal. 

They do not stop you at all on the way home which is pleasant. But you can and do meet maybe three other security vehicles on that journey home, for me about two miles. 

All night long, if you awaken, you can hear the jeeps and cars passing. This is a very quiet area, so you notice the increase in the late traffic.

This is the time of year when the fledgling tits and sparrows and dunnocks are just learning to fly. This is the time of year when the young rabbits are leaving the nest, the young badgers the sets, the young foxes discovering their territory, when young pheasants are abroad on the verges of the roads, all creatures young and great and small. 

Because of the extra traffic a huge number of them are being killed every night. There are always fresh corpses on the roads in the morning, fluffballs of bleeding feathers, crushed rabbits and badgers, trails of blood in the dust. 

I don’t quite know why I mention that.