Anti-war activists failed in their attempts to blockade Shannon airport at the weekend due to a large-scale Garda operation mounted to prevent any disruption at the airport.
Disruption was kept to a minimum on Saturday afternoon as passengers accessed the terminal building on protected Garda routes through the Shannon Free Industrial Zone.
During a protest that lasted almost four hours, riot police along with mounted gardaí were used to corral over 300 anti-war activists along the main access road to the airport.
The anti-war protesters - outnumbered by gardaí - were then prevented from getting within 2km of the airport terminal as a garda cordon, backed up by riot police, prevented protesters from making any further progress.
Moments before the march reached the cordon, members of the Grassroots Network Against War (GNAW) - which last March threatened to pull down the airport perimeter fence - broke away from the main protest in a bid to access airport lands through a wooded area. The Network members, many of whom had with their faces covered with black scarves, were prevented from any trespass by gardaí who escorted the protesters back to the main route of the march.
The march was organised by the Irish Anti-War Movement. Its secretary, Mr Colm Stevens, yesterday criticised what he called "the overwhelming force of gardaí in seeking to curtail the right of protest and corralling protesters in a bid to make protest ineffectual".A Garda spokeswoman said yesterday the protest was a peaceful one, with only two arrests made.
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