Updates (again with apologies for lengthy cut/paste & hoping to get away with same if Joe Offer will allow) -

Reuters excerpt, April 7:

...Over the weekend, U.S. military transport planes were seen arriving at an airfield outside Belfast, and by Monday a steel barrier had been erected around the venue, in the picturesque village of Hillsborough, south of the Northern Irish capital...

Excerpts, The Associated Press, Apr 7 2003 1:52PM BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) -

...By agreeing to Blair's request to meet in Belfast, Bush is taking the boldest step of his presidency into the decades-old conflict in Northern Ireland, and adding a set of issues that complicates his trip...

Blair, a stalwart ally of Bush in the Iraq war, hopes presidential backing will strengthen his hand when he publishes his government's new Northern Ireland plans by Thursday, the fifth anniversary of the Good Friday pact...Bush and Blair drew Ahern into their talks on Northern Ireland, inviting him to a lunch on Tuesday.

The location of the summit, Hillsborough Castle outside Belfast, shields Bush and Blair from the kind of mass anti-war protests that have engulfed London and other European cities. Members of Sinn Fein, the political arm of the Irish Republican Army, planned to demonstrate against the war outside the castle.

But there was unprecedented security at the castle, and in contrast to previous meetings there, protesters were not allowed near the gates. Placards in downtown Belfast branded Bush a ``war criminal'' and urged citizens to join anti-war protests Monday.

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams said he was troubled by the ``insensitivity here about calling a war summit in Ireland.'' ``It doesn't take into account the concerns that the vast majority of people here have about what's happening in Iraq,'' Adams said in Belfast's News Letter newspaper. ``If I have the opportunity, I have no problem being on an anti-war demonstration and then going in to talk to the president.''

Bush and Blair are also trying to breathe new life into the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. Blair has previously held up the progress in Northern Ireland in recent years as a model to inspire peace in the Middle East. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said there are no plans to release Bush's long-sought ``road map'' for Middle East peace during the meeting.