Anti-war groups prepare protests for Bush summit

A number of organisations have announced plans for protests in the south Clare area for the visit of US President George Bush to Ireland next weekend.

Groups such as Anti-War Ireland, AmBush Ireland, and the Irish Anti-War Movement have announced details of three separate marches and rallies to take place in the vicinity of the summit between US and European Union officials at Dromoland Castle, a luxury resort in the area.

The summit is taking place a few miles from Shannon Airport, which is controversially serving as a hub for US transport operations during the Iraq war.

Characteristic infighting has led to a proliferation of groups and apparently rival protests.

A protest organised by Anti-War Ireland (https://antiwarireland.org) is taking place at 7pm on Friday in Shannon Town, a few miles from Shannon Airport, simultaneously with other protests in town and cities around the country, to mark the arrival of Mr Bush to Irish soil.

Mr Bush is scheduled to spend the evening at Dromoland Castle, where he will participate in the summit the following morning.

Two separate protests will be held in the area to protest his visit on the Saturday morning. The Irish Anti-War Movement (https://irishantiwar.org) will assemble in Clarecastle village two miles from the grounds of Dromoland Castle on the main Ennis/Limerick road at 10am, and will then march under the banner ‘Stop Bush’ towards Shannon Airport.

A later protest is being organised by AmBush Ireland (https://www.ambush2004.org) which is gathering at the village of Bunratty at 12 am for a march on Shannon Airport, and is supported by Anti-War Ireland.

A series of colourful protests and demos began on Saturday with AmBush Ireland holding an anti-war “whistle-stop death tour” of Dublin.

The aim of Saturday’s event was to inform the maximum number of people about the Stop Bush protest, which will take place next weekend, according to Dermot Sreenan of the group.

“The use of Baldonnel and Shannon by US troops makes us complicit in this war; 10,000 troops fly through Shannon a month on their way to kill people in the name of liberating them,” he said.

The Irish Anti-War Movement is holding a series of ‘Stop Bush’ events around the country this week, culminating in the march from Dromoland Castle to Shannon Airport.

A week-long bicycle protest from Dublin to Shannon is also currently underway.

‘APARTHEID WALL’ PROTEST

Meanwhile, an Irish activist is continuing a 14-day hunger strike in an appeal for a major Irish cement manufacturer to divest from Israeli companies and to cease involvement in the construction of the ‘Apartheid Wall’ in Palestine.

Caoimhe Butterly is on a water-only hunger strike outside Cement Roadstone Holdings in Fitzwilliams Square in an attempt to focus attention on the construction of a controversial wall which she says violates International Law and contributes to grave human rights violations

Amnesty International recently stated that CRH, through its subsidiary companies Mashav and Nesher, is likely to be providing the raw material of the wallm which would contravene U.N. norms on human rights.

The Apartheid Wall, which is 8 meters high in some places is responsible for the de facto annexation of over 50% of Palestinian agricultural land. Although the Israeli Authorities have referred to it as a “security” or “defensive” measure, it has been repeatedly condemned internationally as a “land grab”.

Close to 90% of the Wall is being built on Palestinian land inside the West Bank, where it has been blamed for dividing families and communities.

Butterly states, “It is shameful that an Irish company should profit from anything that is as immoral, unjust, and destructive as the construction of this Wall.”

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