The Government was in a "badly exposed" position politically because it was continuing to support the US war build-up when the vast majority of the Irish people were opposed to an attack on Iraq, Socialist Party TD Mr Joe Higgins told a peace demonstration at Shannon Airport.
About 1,200 people took part in the non-violent march from Shannon shopping centre to the arrivals hall of the Airport on Saturday afternoon.
The protest was organised by the Irish Anti-War Movement (IAWM) and was separate from the civil disobedience protest at the airport's perimeter fence, organised by the Grassroots Network Against War, in which 10 people were arrested and charged with public order offences.
Referring to the large security presence, Mr Higgins told the IAWM protest: "What an absolute outrage that on this day we have, mobilised around Shannon Airport, Garda helicopters, a Garda riot squad, gardaí on horses, armed men, all pointing in the direction of this peaceful protest."
But they were looking in the wrong direction, he added. Elsewhere in the airport complex they could find, "violent men and machinery on their way to wreak on the people of Iraq the most horrific destruction". He added: "If you want to stop violence, go out and arrest them and send them back to the United States."
He found it incredible that Labour, the Green Party, Sinn Féin and other organisations had allowed themselves to be "panicked" into staying away from the protest because of "hype" and scare stories in the news media.
Referring to the Grassroots group, which was trying to tear down the airport perimeter fence nearby, he said: "Those virtual warriors, before they go pulling down fences on the Internet, should really think that the media is out there, sections of it, waiting for a chance to try and discredit and smear."
Mr Higgins accused sections of the media of trying "to frighten away the tens of thousands of ordinary people who are absolutely opposed to what the Irish Government is doing".
Ms Aisling Golden, from an organisation called Youth Against the War, said history was made in the mass protests on February 15th. "The Irish Government may try to dismiss the anti-war movement, they may try to ignore it with bad stuff in the media, but this is only going to make the young people of Ireland more determined and more willing to come out and raise our voices."
Ms Glenda Cimino, a US citizen, said more than 100 US city councils had declared themselves for peace and sent resolutions to that effect to President Bush.
"He is ignoring them as Bertie Ahern is ignoring us here."
Mr Ryan McKinney of the Belfast Trades Council said the anti-war demonstration in that city on February 15th had united people of different ethnic and religious backgrounds.
"Once the bombing starts, we have to stop the buses, stop the trains, close the schools, empty the universities, empty the factories, empty the offices, that's how we will stop this war."
The chief organiser, Mr Richard Boyd Barrett, said the attendance at the IAWM protest was "not bad under the circumstances". He claimed the Government was "militarising a civilian airport".
He asked the protesters to lie down on the road for a few minutes to show what an air attack on Baghdad would look like. Air-raid sirens were sounded as people lay on the ground.
"Let that be a warning to the Irish Government that they are going to have the blood of innocent people on their hands if they do not stop their collaboration with the US war-drive against Iraq," Mr Boyd Barrett said.
