Following the spectacular success of the February 15th anti-war demonstrations, the Irish peace movement continued last Saturday (22 February) with 3,000 people marching in Galway. The protestors marched from Fr Griffin Park to Eyre Square where many speakers, poets and singers addressed the crowd.

The Galway protest comes a week after massive demonstrations in Dublin and Belfast encouraged Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to finally declare government support for a second UN resolution. Rattled by the sheer size of the protests and clearly out of touch with the mood on the ground, Ahern also ridiclously claimed to agree with the marchers while Tánaiste Mary Harney dismissed protest organisers as anti-American.

see pics at:
 http://www.indymedia.ie/cgi-bin/newswire.cgi?id=30163

Meanwhile after much debate the Grassroots Gathering ( http://grassrootsgathering.freeservers.com/) has issued a statement clarifying the direct action that is being called for the coming Saturday, March 1st at Shannon airport - site of many recent protests and direct actions.

A mass trespass is planned, with two groups involved. Those following white flags will form a line, one deep, facing the fence. The line will walk towards the fence with arms linked and, according to the statement, "once we reach the fence we will attempt to pull it down" and "remain in the grass verge on the other side of the fence." Pink flags will be used to clearly identify those who support the action but do not wish to take part.

See:

Direct Action, Shannon, March 1st.
Grassroots Network Against War
Detailed plans for direct action on March first
 http://www.indymedia.ie/cgi-bin/newswire.cgi?id=30422

IAWM mobilization for Shannon
Mass peaceful protest to the Terminal.
 http://www.indymedia.ie/cgi-bin/newswire.cgi?id=30560