"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.