NORTHERN IRELAND: There were no Union flags, no red-white-and-blue bunting, and the main speaker was of the revolutionary-type that rallies outside Belfast City Hall normally demand be locked up.
But there was at least one familiar ring to proceedings. "We have come here in a great cause to deliver a simple message," said former civil rights' leader Eamonn McCann to loud applause. "Bush and Blair can say what they will, but Ulster still says No." More than 15,000 people from all over the North took part in the anti-war demonstration which brought Belfast city-centre to a standstill. The organisers said they were "overwhelmed" by the turn-out.
Banners of Che Guevara followed ones pronouncing "Jesus is Love". A group of men wore Victorian-style mourning suits. One man, shrouded in black sheets, marched as death. There were huge papier-mâché cruise missiles. A model of Uncle Sam held a missile pointing at a spinning globe with the slogan "Where Next?" Some demonstrators wore Bush and Blair face masks, their hands dripping in mock blood.
Other posters read: "I wish I was French - Stop the War" and "War is terrorism on a bigger budget". There were banners from Derry, Enniskillen, Strabane, and Omagh. "Who let the bombs out. Bush and Blair" shouted the west Belfast marchers. Posters proclaimed the two world leaders "Wanted For Murder" Others showed photographs of dead civilians under the headline, "This is War". A huge banner reading "Mad Dogs" showed Bush as a rottweiler and Blair as his puny poodle. The demonstration was led by the Fire Brigades Union and most of the North's major trade unions were represented. Mr Mick O'Reilly, the sacked regional secretary of the ATGWU called on the trade union movement to consider talking industrial action against the US military's use of Shannon Airport.
Sinn Féin president, Mr Gerry Adams, and Alliance leader, Mr David Ford, attended the rally. The SDLP, the Women's Coalition, the Irish Republican Socialist Party, the Communist Party of Ireland, and the republican writers' group, the Blanket, also took part.
Statements of support were read from the Catholic Primate, Dr Sean Brady, and the Church of Ireland Primate, Dr Robin Eames. Mr Peter Bunting of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions told the crowd: "What do Tony Blair and George Bush know about the realities of war. People of Northern Ireland have some idea - that is why we are so against military action.
"War is not inevitable. We the people are not powerless despite what President Bush and President Blair believe." The Belfast Islamic Centre president, Mr Jamal Iweida, said the British government should spend its money not on war but on paying the firefighters and other workers more.
He told demonstrators: "Your message will reach the Iraqi people. They will know you are here today. You are people who believe in peace and justice, not just in business and oil." Eamonn McCann said: "The last time we listened to a 'Bush' we spent 40 years wandering in the desert." President Bush had no right to set himself up as "some sort of global licensing authority for weapons of mass destruction when the US possesses more than all the world put together".
He called on the "great trade union movement of Ireland to give confidence to workers at Shannon Airport" to stop its use by the US military.