23-06-04
Frank, hold your breath, I'm about to reply to Hitbitch and please don't scrub it off the board as I feel it necessary to respond. Just to put things in perspective.
I live in Shannon. In the Town itself, down the road from the airport.
I am not a prisoner in my own home. My civil rights are not in any way restricted. In fact, when I went to collect my "pass"-- which is only for your car!!-- I made a point of asking the Guards if I needed the pass to move around Shannon, to go shopping etc..... they said no, it was only for your car, only for the two days Bush is here. They said they had no interest in stopping people going about their buisness. Just carry what you always carry...drivers licence, id, whatever.
Only place where a probelm will occur is the Airport itself, for obvious reasons (which is why I will be going nowhere near it) and re-entering the environs of Shannon if you happen to go out to say, Limerick, which seems reasonable enough to me.
Love him or hate, Bush is the leader of one the largest and most powerful countries in the world. He's coming to Ireland at a time when we hold the EU presidency. Let's just accept the fact, welcome him as a head of state and wave him goodbye when he leaves, safe in the knowledge that due to caution, precaution, good planning and foresight, Ireland will not be remembered as the place where G.Bush met his end.
So again, no-one in Shannon is a prisoner in their own home. That's media hype for you. And I grew up in Belfast, so I know all about securty alerts, armed forces and being a prisoner in your own home.
This is probably as dangerous and infringing upon human rights in the same way being in a rabbit hutch is infringing on the rabbit's right to travel.
Sorry Frank, but I have heard so much crap over the last few days about this, I go outside to look for the fences, the troops, the Guards and everything else.
But there's None here. None there.
But yeah, I guess there will be trouble, but it won't be terrorists that cause it.........
Liam
