KERRY: None of the three Fianna Fáil councillors on Killarney Town Council took part in the council's controversial peace walk through the town on Saturday afternoon.
A spokesman for Mr O'Donoghue, the Minister for Tourism and south Kerry TD, denied that any specific instructions were given to the councillors.
Mr O'Donoghue was concerned from a tourism point of view that the walk could have been misinterpreted, and he did not approve of it, but there were no instructions, his constituency spokesman, Mr Colin Miller, said.
Some 60 people, including some American visitors, took part in the peace walk along with five of the town's nine councillors. The council came under pressure from local traders to call it off, amid fears for the important American tourism market.
Councillors, however, stressed their silent protest was anti-war, not anti-American.
Those councillors who stayed away include Mr Patrick O'Donoghue, chief executive of the Gleneagle Hotel and director of Bord Fáilte. He was not at the monthly council meeting which decided to stage a march and he said he would not have supported the idea.
Cllr Michael Courtney (Ind), chairman of Cork Kerry Tourism, also did not walk.
Killarney Town Council was adding its name "to the many towns and cities right across the United States" to show solidarity with other civic bodies throughout the world that they could not support any pre-emptive and/or unilateral action by the US against Iraq, Cllr Sean Counihan said in his emergency anti-war motion at the monthly council meeting.
Cllr Michael Gleeson (South Kerry Ind Alliance) then suggested a silent march would send a message to the US President that they did not want to engage in a war which would be so destructive of human life.
All those present supported the march and there was strong anti-war sentiment at the meeting. However, almost immediately, councillors became concerned their decision could be misrepresented as "anti-American". Their concern grew with what one councillor described as "a raft of calls" from tourism operators in the town.
An emergency meeting was called and the march was changed to a peace walk.
Mayor Sheila Casey (FG), who led the walk last weekend, said Americans were very valued in Killarney. There were to be no placards or leaflets. As it happened there were.
The Irish Anti-War movement in Kerry expressed disappointment with the low turn-out.
A public meeting in Tralee on Monday night last by the anti-war movement in Kerry attracted around 60 people.
War was now "inevitable" but there was a growing awareness and a growing movement "by and large of the left" which included the Socialist Workers Party, Labour, the Greens and Sinn Féin, Mr Martin Ferris TD said at the meeting.