Clerical students in rendition flights protest

Students training to become Church of Ireland ministers will stage a protest outside Dublin’s US embassy today.

A prayer service will also be held outside the embassy in Ballsbridge calling for an immediate end to rendition flights.

At 3pm, the students from the Church of Ireland Theological College in Churchtown, joined by theology students from Trinity College Dublin, will process from St Bartholomew’s Church on Clyde Road behind a cross in clerical robes to the Embassy, where they will conduct a short service.

Organisers chose hold the protest on Good Friday because they say it is when Christians remember the humiliation and torture Jesus Christ suffered.

The group is protesting against what they claim is extraordinary rendition and torture by the US authorities.

They also plan to hand over a petition addressed to the US Ambassador Thomas C Foley calling on the US government to extend procedural protections and human rights to all detainees.