Children from the Irish Islamic community led off the estimated 15,000 people who marched in Dublin on Saturday against the war in Iraq, writes Kitty Holland.
Holding a banner with "STOP! Why the innocent children , innocent women, innocent elderly? Do something for the innocent", the children set off from Parnell Square.
Gardaí estimated the crowd assembled before the march at between 10,000 and 12,000, though the protesters' ranks swelled along the route to the Dáil and Government Buildings.
Although not as large as the February 15th march, when an estimated 100,000 turned out, the protesters were a similar mix of families and teenagers marching alongside banners held by members of the Socialist Workers' Party, the Green Party, Sinn Féin, the Labour Party, the Socialist Party, SIPTU, other trade unionists and humanitarian groups.
Along the way there were several chants, including: "UK, USA, how many kids did you kill today?" and "George Bush, we know you, your daddy was a killer too".
The march stopped outside the Dáil where a number of people burned a US flag and a paint-splashed placard with pictures of the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen.
The burning placard was held aloft for the crowd and was greeted by some with cheers and applause.
Protesters chanted: "This Government has got to go, regime change begins at home."
Outside Government Buildings Mr Richard Boyd-Barrett, of the Anti-War Movement, told the crowd: "Bush and Blair have told us a pack of lies about this war. They said it would be a smart war, a surgical war." It had been, he said, "a terrorist war".
"Our Government is up to its neck in the blood of innocent Iraqis, the same as any other government assisting in this immoral war," he said
Predicting that the anti-war movement would grow as the war continued, he called on the crowd to attend a protest outside the Dáil at 7.30 p.m. on Wednesday.
"We want to lay siege to this Dáil, just like the people of Basra and Baghdad are being laid siege to."
Sen David Norris said that, as an Irishman, he was "proud of the people in this country that I love so well today. And I'm proud of the people in London, and I'm proud of he people in Washington, and I'm proud of the people in San Francisco who are marching with us today.
"What the people of the whole world felt in the aftermath of September 11th has been squandered by Bush," he continued.
Shannon Airport must be closed to the US military, he said, because to do otherwise was "in violation of our Constitution and is in violation of ordinary, common human decency".
Mr Kieran Allen, of the Socialist Workers' Party, said that just one member of the US House of Representatives had a son fighting in the war.
"This war is being fought by working-class people," he said, adding that the US administration regarded the working class as "disposable, expendable".
Mr Des Geraghty, president of SIPTU, said he had been asked by some why, when there were union interests involved, he supported closing Shannon Airport to the US military.
"It is because we will not be bullied by employers or governments anywhere in the world," he said.
Mr Eoin Dubsky of the Cork Anti-war Movement and Mr Ruairí Quinn of the Labour Party also spoke.