Irish police used pepper spray and made arrests to clear protesters who had blockaded the country’s only oil refinery, moving quickly to restore fuel supplies after five days of nationwide demonstrations over surging petrol and diesel prices.
Authorities, with support from Defence Forces personnel, reopened the Whitegate refinery in County Cork on Saturday and escorted tanker trucks away from the site. National broadcaster RTE published footage showing officers dragging a protester from a tractor as police dispersed demonstrators.
Garda commissioner Justin Kelly said the blockades were “endangering the state,” and warned that targeting “critical national infrastructure such as fuel depots and refineries” had produced shortages that directly affected emergency services, including hospitals, ambulances and fire crews. He added that similar operations to reopen blocked sites were likely in the coming hours and days.
The protests began on Tuesday in response to steep rises in fuel costs linked to the war in the Middle East. Participants — largely truckers, farmers and transport operators — partly blockaded Whitegate and restricted access to at least two other depots in Galway and Foynes, County Limerick, disrupting distribution and threatening freight movements.
“We can’t continue to do business with the cost of fuel, cost of wages, everything,” protester Paddy Murray told RTE, urging government intervention. The actions forced cuts to bus services nationwide and halted some tram services in Dublin. Some marches through the capital also included right-wing nationalist elements.
Kevin McPartlan, chief executive of Fuels for Ireland, said roughly 600 of the Republic’s 1,500 filling stations had run dry. Operations at an Irish Rail-run port were heavily affected, with the facility nearing capacity and ships potentially having to anchor offshore or divert to other ports.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin warned the blockades could lead Ireland to turn away fuel shipments amid a tight global market, calling the situation “unconscionable” and difficult to comprehend. Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan described continued blockades as “unacceptable,” saying no group is entitled to hold the public to ransom.
The government has introduced measures such as tax cuts and rebates, but those steps have not fully offset rises in oil prices tied to international conflict.
Edited by: Karl Sexton