Tens of thousands took to Europe's streets yesterday against a possible military strike on Iraq, with Italians burning an effigy of President George W. Bush and an English bishop insisting there was no moral justification for an attack.
Anti-war protests were among themes for International Women's Day being celebrated yesterday.
One thousand demonstrators took to the streets of Cork, marching behind a giant banner that simply read: "Women against war".
"We and the world are being dragged into a military conflict for reasons that are less than pure and for reasons that are far from explainable," Mr Dan Doyle, Green Party TD, told the crowd.
In Dublin, around two hundred people protested in front of the US embassy, where Labour MEP Mr Prionsias de Rossa attacked the Government for not opposing US President George W. Bush over his hardline stance on Iraq.
"I don't think it's any longer justifiable for the Irish government to sing dumb on the basis that we can't be critical of the Bush administration in order to defend our national interest," he said.
Tens of thousands of people protested outside a US military base near Pisa in northern Italy, burning an effigy of President George W. Bush in uniform.
Left-wing parliamentary deputies were among those who gathered outside US Camp Darby in Italy, with organisers estimating the crowd at 60,000 people and the police 20,000 people.
The Italian government has sided with the hardline camp in the Iraqi crisis, arguing that Baghdad should be disarmed by force if necessary, while polls show much of the country's population opposed to war.
Thousands across Germany called on Bush to respect the opinions of the hundreds of millions across the world who oppose a military solution to disarming Iraq of alleged weapons of mass destruction.
In Stuttgart some 300 people held a sit-in outside the US army's European Command. Thousands marched through the French city of Grenoble carrying a banner reading: "War is stupid. Give us a bit of peace."
They included representatives of the International Women's League for Peace and Freedom, the Human Rights League, labour unions and left-wing parties.
France, led by President Jacques Chirac, has been particularly vocal in opposing a proposed second United Nations Security Council resolution which would pave the way for a US-led war against Iraq.