Children deliver tough message to Taoiseach

AMERICAN President George W Bush may not be taking much notice of either the United Nations or anyone else these days, but Irish schoolchildren are hoping their own political leaders will be different.

Some 47 children lined up outside the Dáil yesterday to deliver a hard-hitting peace message to the Taoiseach that they believe he will not be able to ignore. The students from Loretto College in Swords, Co Dublin, were symbolically representing the 47% of Iraq’s population which is under 16.

In advance of this week’s Dáil debate on war in Iraq, the schoolchildren lined up outside Leinster House to deliver a “stop fuelling the war” message to Bertie Ahern.