No welcome for Bush
No more lies No more war
This was the title of a public meeting held in Mullingar , County
Westmeath , Ireland to protest against the visit to Ireland of
George W Bush. The meeting was held at the Greville Arms Hotel
in Mullingar on Monday 21 st June 2004 at 8pm .
Speakers were: Dr Curtis F.J. Doebbler, Visiting professor of International Human Rights Law Tashkent State Institute of Law, Uzbekistan , Brendan Farrell The Green Party, Ciaron Grimes Sinn Fein, Mary Kelly Peace Campaigner and Michael O'Brien from the Irish Anti War Movement.
Poetry Reading by Marty Mullingar - His poem is published herein.
Over 50 people attended the meeting. The audience very much appreciated the presentations made by all contributors to the meeting who based their comments on their collective sense of outrage at the genocidal attacks on the people of Iraq and the foreign occupation of their country.
The meeting was organised by the Westmeath Anti War Group.
Photos of Anti War protests which followed on 25 th and 26 th June,
the days Bush was in Ireland for the European Union/US Summit at Drumoland
Castle (in the West of Ireland) are posted below. The photographs were
taken by a member of the Westmeath Anti War Group. The photographer is
also the Co ordinator for the International Committee to Defend Slobodan
Milosevic (Irish Section).
Shannon
airport demonstration, 26 June 2004
Drumoland castle demonstration, 26 June 2004
Dublin
demonstration, 25 June 2004
Mullingar
meeting at Greville Arms Hotel, 21 June 2004
All members of the ICDSM (Irish Section) are active anti war campaigners within their home counties in Ireland .
Despite the massive and intense pro Bush campaign on the part of the media/Irish government to include the deployment of thousnads of Irish police, more than 6,600 Irish security and American secret service personnel, Irish Army Tanks and Water Cannons and the threat of the use by government forces of cluster bombs against peace campaigners, some 7,000 protestors managed to make their way to both Shannon Airport and Drumoland Castle on 26 th June.
The protests were very well organised and protestors behaved impeccably - As usual.
Army
tanks heading towards Shannon Airport
The
Irish Times 25 June 2004
___________________________________________________
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
County Westmeath Press 13.6.2004
"The Ahern name did the damage" said Irish Prime Minister Bertie's brother Maurice Ahern immediately following upon the revelation that the Fianna Fail party had suffered its worst electoral defeat in years in the nationwide elections to appoint representatives to European and local council posts.
Maurice Ahern's message is in itself a further example of "spin" or more elaborately, the deliberate circumvention of truth.
Voters clearly looked beyond "personalities" and confronted issues.
In England the Labour Party's historic defeat in the recent Council elections prompted analysts to surmise that the electorate had registered a growing sense of outrage over the Labour Party's policies on Iraq .
In Ireland opposition to the current Government's collaboration in the illegal and immoral war and occupation of Iraq has grown with the revelations of torture, rape, genocide and environmental devastation presenting a horrifying picture of an institutionalised form of inhumanity.
Last year, 3,691 foreign military (mostly American) aircraft carrying 125,855 armed troops passed through Ireland 's Shannon Airport .
Another 612 "civilian" planes carrying unspecified weapons, possibly to include depleted uranium, passed through Irish air space guided by Shannon air traffic controllers.
A recent (June 4, 2004) item in The Phoenix reports on the use of Irish air transport facilities to transfer kidnapped Muslims from Iraq and other areas of the Middle East to holding centres in the U.S., and thence to Guantanamo Bay in contravention of the Geneva Convention.
C.I.A-run covert aircraft according to The Phoenix are daily visitors to Shannon .
The Westmeath Anti War Group will hold a public meeting at the Greville Arms Hotel Mullingar, Co Westmeath, 8pm Monday 21 st June as prelude to visit to Ireland of George W Bush.
A protest march will be held in Dublin against the visit to Ireland of George W Bush. Assemble Parnell Sq 7pm Friday 25 th June. For seat booking on buses to venue of Summit on 26 th June contact 086 1523542 or 087 6187680 - www.irishantiwar.org .
A demonstration will also be held at Shannon on 25 th June. Assemble Shannon Town Centre 7pm. Contact Anti War Ireland on 087 1258325 for details.
Re trial of Irish peace campaigner Mary Kelly began in Ennis Circuit Court, County Clare on 16 th June. Contact campaign on 087 7838688 - www.freewebs.com/mary_kelly
Submitted by Dan O'Brien
Written by John Kelly
For Westmeath Anti War Group
(John Kelly is also a member of the ICDSM(Irish Section)
Letter published in The Topic newspaper June 2004.