Major anti-war rally in Cork this Saturday

national | miscellaneous | news report

Tuesday March 04, 2003 16:22

by Sean O Seafraidh - Cork Anti-War Campaign

corkantiwar at hotmail dot com

086-3004573

Cork Anti-War Campaign to hold rally followed by music event.

A major anti-war rally will be held in Cork City Centre this Saturday (8th March) which hopes to attract several thousand people.

The rally is being organised by the broad-based Cork Anti-War Campaign and after marching through the city centre will make its way to Emmet Place where a live music gig will be held after short speeches from anti-war activists, TDs Joe Higgins and Dan Boyle and trade unionists.

The event will coincide with International Womens’ Day and the rally will be led off by a group of women dressed in black to highlight the effect of war on women and children.

The Cork Anti-War Campaign said that the rally was being held at a critical time as preparations for a US led war on Iraq have been stepped up to the point where special military operations and actual shooting have already started, despite the fact that UN weapons inspectors have yet to finish their task.

The demonstration will commence at Daunt’s Square at 1.00pm and will follow a route from culminating in Emmet Place where the musical line-up includes John Spillane, Hank Wedel, Eoin Coughlan and Head Over Heels.

A spokesman for the Cork Anti-War Campaign said that several thousand Cork people had travelled to Dublin for the huge rally in the capital on February 15th and there was no reason why there couldn’t be a very large turnout for a similar rally in Cork. “We are calling on the people of Cork who are overwhelmingly opposed to a war for oil against Iraq and who are totally opposed to US military refuelling at Shannon, to come out in their thousands next Saturday and make their voices heard”.