10,000 anti-Bush protesters take to streets
The crowd gathered at Parnell Square to hear speakers attack Mr Bush over his policies in Iraq and describe his visit to Ireland as an election photo opportunity to impress Irish-American voters.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was also heavily criticised for what anti-war protestors described as his support for the war in Iraq.
Following the speeches, the protestors, representing a range of left wing and anti-war groups, brought the centre of Dublin to a standstill as they marched along O’Connell Street, around College Green, along Nassau Street to government buildings in Merrion Square.
The march was organised by the Anti-War Movement, an umbrella body for various groups, and supported by Labour, the Greens and a number of militant socialist parties.
Many of the marchers carried banners.
One read: “A village in Texas has lost its idiot.”
Leading politicians, including Labour leader Pat Rabbitte, Green Party president John Gormley, who read a message from colleague Ed Horgan, who was arrested yesterday, and Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins, were among the marchers.
Eamon McCann, the veteran socialist, travelled with a party from Derry.
Mr Rabbitte described the security operation around Dromoland Castle and Shannon Airport as “over the top and quite Draconian ... to ensure the president is fully insulated from even the hint of democratic protest”.
Mr Higgins launched a scathing attack on the Government, particularly Justice Minister Michael McDowell.
“(The) Minister for Justice says he is horrified over the torture of prisoners in the United States prison camp in Guantanamo Bay. But he is mobilising thousands of Garda and Army personnel to protect the instigator of the torture and invasion,” said Mr Higgins.
The new Lord Mayor of Dublin Michael Conaghan described President Bush’s visit as a the “most expensive photo-opportunity in the Irish history.”
“It is being stage for a president who wants soft-focus pictures of himself in the Emerald Isle, for the consumption of the millions of American voters who have Irish roots,” said Mr Conaghan.
To loud applause, Mustafid Rashid, a member of the Irish Muslim community, said the protestors gathered there not because they were anti-American but because of one man, George Bush, who he added “we deeply distrust”.
