A NEW campaign to collect a million signatures for peace was launched yesterday when representatives of STOP (Solidarity to Organise Peace) met the President, Mrs Robinson, at Aras an Uachtarain.
Mrs Robinson was the first signatory, putting her name to a 48 sheet peace poster. The poster will be reduced in size and sent around the country in the hope that a million signatures will be collected. The campaign follows an earlier postcard "peace write in" organised by a Co Down couple who received half a million signatures last month.
The latest initiative is called Voices for Peace and those involved include the organisers of last Sunday's all Ireland rallies. It will also include a "highly visible" advertising campaign on TV, press and posters using lines such as "Give us back our peace" and "Stop" and "Talk".
A "Peace site" is also being set up on the Internet which will allow the Irish abroad to support the campaign as well.
Meanwhile a 15 foot high table is to be built on O'Connell bridge, Dublin, today by the Table Campaign.
According to the organisers, the table symbolises the need for dialogue to build peace. At 3a.m. singers Luka Bloom and Liam O Maonlai will lead drumming groups from all over Ireland in a 20 minute "Dialogue of the Drums". Writers including Roddy Doyle, Jennifer Johnston and Theo Dorgan will be among the celebrities at the event.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa sent a message of solidarity saying "please come and sit round the table and talk. If Afrikaners and Africans could do it after decades of apartheid's injustice and hatred, surely it should be possible in that beautiful and blessed isle. Just talk talking does not kill."