Two peace activists were arrested at Shannon Airport this morning on suspicion of causing criminal damage.
The pair were arrested by Airport police shortly before 7 a.m. and taken to Shannon Garda Station where they can be held for up to 12 hours without charge.
The two women are campaigners for the Catholic Worker Movement. They sent a number of text messages to the Irish Indymedia Web site in which they described their actions as a peace vigil.
According to their messages posted on the Web site, the pair played a cd of a "mourning cry"
while reading prayers and reciting names of those killed since the US-led invasion of Iraq.
Describing themselves as anti-war banshees, the pair said they had donned Muslim mourning burqas and had set up a shrine to the war dead near the runway.
Another message called for an "immediate withdrawal by the US military and their death-affirming weaponry from Shannon Airport, an end to the US/UK war, invasion and occupation in Iraq, and mass non-violent resistance to Irish complicity in crimes against peace and humanity."