Nearly 800 join Shannon anti-war protest

Around 800 anti-Iraq war campaigners joined a protest rally today outside Shannon Airport in Co Clare today.

Groups from around the country joined the demonstration against the Irish government’s granting of approval for United States military aircraft to use Shannon before and during the Iraq conflict.

The rally assembled in Shannon town and walked the two-and-a-half miles to the airport.

Richard Boyd Barrett, of Ireland’s Anti-War Movement, said protesters believed it was important to maintain pressure on the Government for its complicity in what he described as “the illegal war in Iraq.”

Riot-helmeted police were stationed around the airport’s perimeter fence, but no incidents were reported.