When a government’s answer to protesting truckers is to send in the army, something has gone badly wrong. At present, truckers and farmers in Ireland are blocking roads around the country as part of a protest against the cripplingly high cost of fuel and the lack of government action to fix it.

Sending in the army to remove blockades should have been a last resort, after all other attempts to diffuse the situation have been exhausted

Sending in the army to remove blockades should have been a last resort, after all other attempts to diffuse the situation have been exhausted

Truckers, school bus drivers and farmers have parked their vehicles on both sides of Dublin City’s busiest thoroughfare, O’Connell Street. Protesters and understandably frustrated commuters have, in some cases, come to blows. National motorways are at crawling pace. People trying to get to Dublin airport on time have abandoned taxis and pulled suitcases along the edge of motorways. As the third day of chaos drew to a close, more than 500 petrol stations reportedly ran out of fuel. HGVs with the tippers raised have blocked the Whitegate oil refinery.

After three days of chaos, the government decided to send in the army, which has deployed four heavy-lift recovery trucks to help police remove blockading vehicles. Heavy Garda reinforcements have also been sent in to Whitegate. As........

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