The real argument about the forthcoming visit of the warship USS John F. Kennedy was about morality the morality of war and the morality of armaments and the armaments industry the former senator, Mr Brendan Ryan, told a meeting in Cork last night.
"So much will be written about its size and its population," he said. "But so little will be said about what it does some would say on our behalf. It is designed to kill large numbers of people with the maximum efficiency.
Vessels like the JFK were refitted and their armaments upgraded regularly, he said. "What happens to the `redundant' weaponry it is sold on the international arms market or given away to governments or factions of whom the US approves. And then it kills people or enforces squalid dictatorships of one kind or another."
The protest meeting was organised by the Socialist Workers' Party.