DUBLIN - Irish campaigners said they were planning to bombard British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Prince Charles with postcards to protest against the Sellafield nuclear plant.
Sellafield's presence across the Irish Sea on England's northwest coast has been a long-running source of friction between the two countries, with repeated calls from Ireland for the plant to be shut down on safety grounds. The campaign group hopes to send nearly 1.5 million postcards to homes in the Irish Republic, urging people to forward them to Blair's Downing Street residence, Charles' London home at St James's Palace and Sellafield itself.
The campaign is spearheaded by Ali Hewson, wife of Irish rock star Bono from the band U2, and has the support of Prime Minister Bertie Ahern.
"We are working round-the-clock trying to put this together, but it is dependent on us being able to raise the money to do it," said a spokesman for the campaign.
"This is not a government initiative, but an official from the Taoiseach's (prime minister's) office met Ali Hewson to discuss it and the Taoiseach is supportive of the campaign," a spokesman for Ahern told Reuters.
Under the group's draft plans the postcard sent to Blair would show a close up of a human eye with a message urging the British PM to "look me in the eye and say Sellafield is safe".
The prince would be sent a postcard depicting Ireland ravaged by fallout from a nuclear accident with the message: "Wish you were here".
A third postcard addressed to Norman Askew, chief executive of Sellafield's owners British Nuclear Fuels, would show a pair of lips and the slogan: "Tell us the truth".
The spokesman for the campaigners, who are seeking financial support from Irish businesses, said they hoped to launch the postcard blitz in April.
Last week Ireland's public enterprise minister Mary O'Rourke held talks in Oslo with Norway's Environment Minister Borge Brende to discuss their opposition to Sellafield, which O'Rourke said "threatens every man, woman and child in Ireland".
Last year, Ireland unsuccessfully applied to the Hamburg-based International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea for an injunction to block the start up of a 472-million pound ($673.2m) nuclear fuel manufacturing plant at Sellafield.:
