Students abandon their desks in protests against war in Iraq

MORE than 1,000 secondary school students took to the streets yesterday in a series of countrywide school walkouts against war in Iraq.

Students downed their books just before lunch to join noisy demonstrations in Dublin, Cork and Limerick, despite calls from teachers and the union of secondary schools not to leave classes. Numerous individual schools around the country also saw smaller actions and protests.

In Dublin, up to 400 students from numerous schools gathered at 1pm