Limerick Voice spoke to students from University of Limerick about the rising fuel prices and the ongoing protests to hear their thoughts.
Opinions on the price of fuel seemed to remain consistent across the board.
One UL student, Dearbhaile, said “I’m already so poor, like genuinely so poor, and then I go to the petrol station and it’s like, oh, actually we’re going to make your life ten times worse.”
UL student Finn Corcoran said he drove to three different petrol stations in Castletroy looking for fuel, and all three were out.
“I wanted to fill up my car because I saw online that a lot of places were running low,” he explained, commenting that the queues at each station were “crazy”.
“Driving through traffic around Castletroy and not being able to find a petrol station that has petrol was really weird. The whole thing is quasi-apocalyptic.”
Students Ola and Emma both drive Opel Corsas and commented on their fuel efficiency.
While they haven’t noticed much of an increase in their fuel costs, Emma mentioned other family members “who drive other kinds of cars are quite affected”.
Fourth year student Evan Prendargast, has been directly affected thanks to the disruptions of protesters.
He is currently undergoing Peritoneal Dialysis and as a result cannot be away from his home in Kerry for too long.
Evan missed his appointment at UHL on Wednesday April 8, due to traffic from the protests.
“I had to rebook my appointment… I had to take samples from my PD fluid and other things… now I’ll have to repeat these same tests all over again, which can be quite frustrating.”
Despite these frustrations, he believes the protests are necessary and expresses his support to those involved.
“I stand with them for their protests and if I could I would be out there as well but due to my own condition, I’m not able to.”
The People of Ireland Against Fuel Prices Protest organisers said in a post on social media that the demonstration “will continue until the government listen to the people of Ireland.”
They also announced that the main protest locations for Limerick this Thursday, 9 April , are Beary’s Cross, Daly’s Cross, Croom, and Bunratty Village, “feeding into the rolling route from J29 M7 to J2 N18”.
In a post on social media, An Garda Síochána released a statement saying:
“Despite our significant and prolonged encouragement… it is clear that some people have significantly escalated an already difficult situation by targeting critical infrastructure such as fuel depots and refineries.
“These are no longer protests, they are blockades.”
The statement added: “This is not tolerable and it is against the law.”