M50 reopens but some motorways remain blocked and public transport disrupted due to protests

GARDAÍ HAVE CLEARED fuel protesters from a number of roads across the country, including Dublin’s M50 motorway, but a number of protests and road closures remain in place on Sunday morning. 

Some public transport remains disrupted by the protests and blockades, despite the garda operation overnight. 

Transport Infrastructure Ireland has warned that ten protests are currently blocking motorways around the country and urged people to use different routes for journeys today. 

“Significant delays to your journey are likely to occur,” TII said in a post on social media. 

The blockade on Dublin’s M50, the biggest motorway in the country, was cleared in the early hours of this morning. 

The motorways currently impacted are the M1, N4, N6, N7, M7, M8 and M18. The M1 is blockaded at Junction 18 (Carlingford) heading southbound while the M18 between Galway and Clare has three separate protests, including between Junction 1 and 2. 

The full list of impacted motorways can be seen here. Transport Infrastructure Ireland also has a map on its website showing the location of all the closed roads. 

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Dublin Bus has a full list of cancelled services, route diversions, and changes of terminuses here.

A number of services on Dublin’s northside travelling to the southside are only going as far as Mountjoy Square or Parnell Square. On the other side of the city, a number of services on the southside are terminating at Stephen’s Green or Merrion Square. 

Dublin’s Luas Red Line is currently only running as far as Smithfield, with no service running between that stop and The Point due to the garda operation in the city centre. 

Bus Éireann services in and around Galway city remain disrupted today due to the protest there. Potential passengers can follow the list of disruptions here and see real-time information about buses here.  

An emergency meeting of the Cabinet will take place at 4pm today as the government prepares to sign off on measures it hopes will bring the protests to an end. 

An Garda Síochána cleared a blockade of the Whitegate oil refinery in Co Cork on Saturday afternoon and vowed to implement further enhanced enforcement actions.

This morning they announced all blockades in Dublin had been cleared following an overnight operation on O’Connell Street.

The Whitegate operation saw physical clashes between protesters and gardai, who used pepper spray during the hour-long operation which resecured access for fuel trucks.

Gardaí were later called to a similar action at Galway harbour, where hundreds of protesters gathered in pouring rain while restricting access to a fuel depot by blocking the way with tractors.

Members of the Public Order Unit, wearing protective gear and batons, were at the scene for hours overnight.

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