Westlife takes advantage of the hush as tailbacks disappear

"Wouldn't it be great if it was always like this?" was heard more than once in Limerick yesterday as the city quietened to a …

"Wouldn't it be great if it was always like this?" was heard more than once in Limerick yesterday as the city quietened to a pre-Celtic Tiger purr and tailbacks vanished. The hauliers restricted access to the city after assembling at midnight on Thursday at key roundabouts, giving the centre a curious air of peacefulness and allowing the pop band, Westlife, to record a video unhindered.

The picket continued through the day with two-lane roads reduced to one as lorries parked on roundabout exits and entrances and put on their hazard lights.

Earlier Mr Eamonn Morrissey, deputy vice-president of the Irish Road Haulage Association, and Mr Eugene Drennan, an executive member, had presided over what is understood to have been a stormy meeting of 150 hauliers in the Limerick Inn Hotel to decide on strategy.

Some trucks also staged a protest in Shannon town, but traffic movements were normal for a Friday. In Ennis a convoy of slow-moving lorries disrupted traffic during the day. Yesterday evening, in the main demonstration in the midwest, there was considerable disruption in Limerick as about 150 trucks proceeded in a slow convoy around the city.