WEEKEND PROTESTS ROUND-UP: A summary of events at protests in Galway, Waterford, Sligo, Killarney and Shannon.
Galway
Hundreds of protest letters over the Government's position on Shannon Airport were posted into the offices of Galway's only Cabinet member, Mr Eamon Ó Cuiv, during a mile-long anti-war march through the city on Saturday.
Over 1,000 people took part in the march, organised by the Galway Alliance Against War.
The numbers multiplied for a peace rally in Eyre Square.
Addressing the rally, the Labour foreign affairs spokesman and Galway West TD, Mr Michael D. Higgins, said that the world was witnessing a new definition of politics, at a time when the US president's aim was to have a US state "everywhere there is oil, from Iran to Uzbekistan to Afghanistan".
Shannon
Anti-war protesters re-established the Peace Camp in Shannon over the weekend to highlight the continued use of the airport by the US military.
At the camp yesterday, Jimmy Brosnan of the Tralee Anti-War Group said: "We are doing this to re-focus the attention on Shannon being used as part of a massive war machine."
Waterford
In Waterford city, around 300 protesters took part in an anti-war march on Saturday.
They marched from the Glen in the city, along the quays to John Roberts Square, where they were addressed by several activists, largely drawn from trade unions and left-leaning political parties.
One man listened to with particular interest by the protesters was Bro Columbanus, the now elderly but still active Franciscan friar who served in the second World War.
He likened the weekend bombing of Baghdad to the attacks by Allied forces on Dresden during the second World War.
Sligo
The streets of Sligo were closed to traffic for a period on Saturday as over 1,000 people participated in an anti-war protest march through the town.
Those participating assembled in Quay Street shortly after 3.00 p.m. and led by members of the Sligo Anti-War movement and a samba band, the protesters marched through Sligo's main streets to the Town Hall where an open air protest rally was held.
Speakers at the rally, which was chaired by anti-war activist and Labour Alderman Declan Bree, included the Deputy Mayor of Sligo, Councillor Veronica Cawley, Mr John Comiskey of the Sligo Council of Trade Unions, Ms Tracy Walsh of the North West branch of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Ms Niamh Wilson an activist in the Womens movement in Sligo.
Killarney
The Rosary peace protest in Killarney was unlike any the town's American visitors had ever seen and they were deeply "appreciative", a group of Americans said on Saturday afternoon in the wake of the march. Well over 200 people marched with rosary beads in hand, chanting the rosary and singing Ave, Ave Maria, behind a large statue of Our Lady of Fatima.
Organisers had forbidden political posters of any kind.