Taoiseach Bertie Ahern will not meet prominent US anti-war campaigner Cindy Sheehan.
Ms Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq, had requested a meeting to call on him to end the use of Shannon airport by the US military.
But the Taoiseach's office this afternoon told ireland.comthat he could not meet with Ms Sheehan due to prior diary commitments but that he had forwarded her correspondence to the Department of Foreign Affairs for "appropriate reply".
Ms Sheehan, whose 24-year-old army specialist son was killed in April 2004, caused controversy and made international headlines this summer after she set up permanent camp outside the Texas ranch of President Bush to protest over her son's death .
The protest proved to be something of a public relations coup for the anti-war movement and galvanised national support for her cause, although she was also the subject of fierce criticism from conservative commentators and even her own in-laws.
Ms Sheehan will meet with a number of TDs and senators outside the Dáil tomorrow afternoon, including Green Party spokesman on foreign affairs John Gormley, Aengus O'Snodaigh of Sinn Féin and Senator David Norris.
She will also speak at a public meeting in Belvedere College at 8pm that night, when she will be joined by Rose Gentle, the mother of British soldier killed in Iraq, and Iraqi anti-war activists Tahrir Swift and Raeid Al Wazzan.
