Activists to walk from Dublin to London

An international group of 15 anti-nuclear activists are walking from Dublin to London to highlight their concerns about the nuclear industry and to campaign for the closure of facilities such as the Sellafield plant in Britain.

The Footprints for Peace walk was launched by Dublin's deputy lord mayor, Aodhán Ó Riordán, at the GPO yesterday and was attended by Labour MEP Proinsias De Rossa, Green Party candidate Patricia McKenna, Senator David Norris and Aengus Ó Snodaigh of Sinn Féin.

The Footprints for Peace organisation has been arranging walks across the world, ranging from one week to nine months in length, for the past 17 years.

The group is walking from Dublin to Belfast and from Glasgow to London over the next 85 days, and intends to arrive in London on August 6th for the 62nd anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima.

The group is walking along the east coast to Belfast to highlight the effects nuclear power has on the environment. On its journey from Glasgow to London, it will hold peaceful protests at nuclear facilities such as power plants, weapons bases and storage facilities.

"Although Ireland has no nuclear reactor there is now talk of buying nuclear power from England. This is absolutely ironic considering the long opposition by Government officials, NGOs and local people in Ireland to the Sellafield reprocessing facility in the UK," said Footprints for Peace co-ordinator Marcus Atkinson.

The demand for nuclear power could have a devastating effect on the environment of the east coast, he added.

The public was being misled into thinking that nuclear power was an environmentally friendly solution to fuel shortages, Mr De Rossa said.