On February 15th, 2003, 100,000 people marched through Dublin city centre to demonstrate against the impending US and British invasion of Iraq. It was an impressive illustration of the depth of feeling among Irish people in opposing the war. It was also the biggest demonstration held in the capital since the protest following Bloody Sunday in 1972.
The preceding months had involved endless debates on the international stage about weapons inspections. This moved toward suggestions of an alleged cache in Iraq of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). An infamous dossier produced by the Tony Blair-led British government claimed Iraq could launch WMDs within 45 minutes. As this played out, there was background squabbling over whether or not a UN resolution – 1441 – gave a mandate for the invasion.
Clearly, a large swathe of the Irish population did not buy the arguments of the dossier, or the cla
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