Protesters to meet senior gardai on Bush visit

Anti-war protest groups will meet with gardai tomorrow to discuss plans for protests against President George W Bush's brief …

Anti-war protest groups will meet with gardai tomorrow to discuss plans for protests against President George W Bush's brief visit to Ireland on Friday and Saturday for an EU summit.

Mr Bush will arrive in Ireland late on Friday night and will leave early on Saturday after the summit at Dromoland Castle, Co Clare.

Representatives of the 'Stop Bush' campaign, which is behind the weekend's demonstration against MrBush at Dromoland Castle will meet Ennis Gardai in charge of security.

The meeting will take place just outside Portlaoise.

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A spokesman for the Stop Bush Campaign said it would inform gardai of its intention to protest at Dromoland and to then move on to Shannon.

There is speculation that a massive 'exclusion zone' will be imposed around Dromoland to prevent protesters getting within miles of President Bush.

Phoenix Park in Dublin was closed for a full weekend when EU heads of state visited the capital to mark the accession of 10 new states to the bloc on May 1st.

Gardai used water cannon to quell a protest taking place some miles away while the heads of state met at Farmleigh.

The State will mount its biggest ever security operation for Mr Bush's visit.  Some 3,800 gardai and 2,000 Defence Forces personnel and between 600 and 700 US secret service staff and a private Irish security company will be involved in the effort.

Residents in the Shannon area have also been visited by gardai seeking information such as car registrations and the names of people living in each house.

Some 11 miles of road linking Limerick to Galway will close for 24 hours as part of the security operation.

Peace activists will hold a rally in Shannon town centre on Friday with the intention of marching to the airport.  The group said last week it had been told by the gardai it could gather and march to Shannon airport as long as the organisers guaranteed the protest would be peaceful.

Protests will take place throughout the country on Friday and Saturday, with a major protest planned for Dublin city on Friday night.