Row rages over Bush’s Shannon troop meeting

US President George Bush did not need permission to rally US troops on Irish soil, Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern has said.

Mr Bush outraged anti-war campaigners when, during a recent refuelling stop at Shannon Airport, he disembarked from Air Force One and held a ‘meet and greet’ with 200 Middle East-bound US soldiers.

Peace activists labelled it a gross insult to Ireland’s sovereignty and policy of neutrality, while the Green Party said it was clear the White House viewed this country as a “de facto 51st state” of the US.