Republican News · Thursday 10 April 2003

War Summit protests

PSNI riot squads were rushed to the road leading into the village of Hillsborough on Monday evening 7 April to block thousands of anti-war demonstrators who tried to march on Hillsborough Castle in protest against the visit of US president George W Bush to Ireland.

Bush had travelled to Hillsborough to hold a 'war council' with his British ally Tony Blair.

ti-war protesters from across Ireland and some from England, Scotland and Wales travelled to Sprucefield, between Belfast and Hillsborough for a march and rally against the meeting.

The demonstrators marched along the A1 dual carriageway and were to hold a rally just short of the road to Hillsborough, but a large section of the crowd surged past the platform and headed to the Hillsborough Road, where they were confronted by the PSNI riot squads.

After an hour, the crowd moved back to the main rally site, where speakers, including Sinn Féin's Mitchel McLaughlin, addressed the crowd.

At a second anti-war rally in Belfast City Centre on Tuesday 8 April, 14 demonstrators were arrested after PSNI riot squads moved against people who were blocking the road in front of the City Hall.

A blind man was amongst those arrested.

At Monday night's Dublin City Council meeting, an emergency motion was passed unanimously by councillors calling on An Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to convey to the President of the US, George Bush, "the overwhelming view of the Irish people that the war in Iraq is unjust and unjustified."

The motion called on "all parties and groups represented in City Hall to take the unique opportunity of the visits of Mr Blair and Mr Bush, to convey to them both the very strong opposition here to the war".

Derry protests Bush visit

On Monday 7 April ant-war protesters remodelled landmarks in Derry City as a protest against the British and United States invasion of Iraq and the first ever visit to the Six Counties by US President George W Bush.

The statue of the Celtic goddess Macha at Altnagelvin Hospital was transformed into a shrine with burning candles, while the Derry Tappers statue at Carlisle Circus was bedecked with a mock Raytheon missile.

Three demonstrators were arrested after covering the former Fort George, British army base with anti-war graffiti.

Protesters also covered Free Derry Corner with a black shroud in the early hours of Monday 7 April in protest at the visit.

Dr Robbie McVeigh, a spokesperson for Foyle Ethical Investment Campaign, said it was "the final ignominy that United States President George Bush should visit the North to hold a a war summit with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in the guise of a peace summit on the North.

"Thousands of Iraqi civilians have already been killed and maimed by Raytheon weapons, including Cruise and Patriot missiles and also cluster bombs. This is the final ignominy, a peace summit in Ireland providing cover for the illegal war ongoing in Iraq."