Crowds swell for Shannon protest

Hundreds of people are to converge on Shannon airport this afternoon to protest against it's use by US military aircraft.

The Irish Anti-War movement estimates that up to 2,000 people will join them in marching from Shannon town centre to the airport terminal via the peace camp at 2 O'Clock.

Spokesperson Richard Boyd-Barrett says ''We are also going to be handing in a giant post-card to the US troops, which we hope the airport authorities will hand over to them, asking them to leave the country.US soldiers are not welcome in this country while the US is planning to attack Iraq.''

Green party Chairman John Gormley will be joining the protest. He says ''There is a lot of deception taking place and clearly Irish neutrality is a thing of the past...basically Shannon airport is being used as a domestic military airport, yet it is also a civilian airport...clearly the two of these are not compatible.''