Two weeks ago, on the morning of its official opening, Barron’s Spar family run shop, at Blackwater, Ardnacrusha, Co Clare, was burgled and robbed.
On Thursday, its Circle K fuel forecourt ran out of diesel as a consequence of the fuel protest blockades.
It has been a Baptism of fire for manager, Alannah Barron, who said on Thursday she did not know when her diesel pumps would run again.
“For the last two days we have seen an awful lot of people panic buy, people are stocking up with Jerry cans and everything,” said Barron.
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“Unfortunately we are now out of diesel, and I have no idea when our next delivery is going to be ... It’s obviously very challenging,” she added.
Motorists queued up to fill up their tanks throughout the day but were only able to do so if they had petrol vehicles. Diesel owners were met with signs strapped to the pumps that read: “Out of fuel. Sorry for the inconvenience.”
“Our customers are like myself, we just don’t know [when it will end]. Hopefully we will get some answers soon,” said Barron.
“Our Spar is still open, we are still trading and we have petrol, we just have no diesel.”
Across the border into Limerick, filling stations reportedly placed a cap on how much fuel motorists could purchase.
Long queues of vehicles outside filling stations were reported across the midwest.
Three residents of Bloodmill Road, Limerick, decided to show solidarity with the fuel price protesters by purchasing and preparing food for them.
Ciara Doheny and her daughter Ellie (12) were joined by neighbour Gerry Donovan to bring supplies to the protesters who had set up camp on the M20 motorway.
“We went to Dunne’s Stores this morning and we bought bread, ham, cheese, crisps, soft drinks, doughnuts, cookies, biscuits,” said Donovan.
The trio also made sandwiches from five sliced white pans and presented the platter to the protesters anchored outside Ballysimon.
“We did it as a show of solidarity with the protesters, because we heard on the media that when they were leaving the motorway to get food, they were not being left back in [to the protest] again.
“So we decided to chance it and see would we be left on to the motorway with food for them and we were,” added Donovan.
“The gardaí were very nice and left us on, and we drove the food on ourselves. We spoke to the drivers and the were very appreciative of the food and refreshments.
“It was a load of food, fit for an army, we used five loaves of bread. T’was like the five loaves and the fishes in the Bible – so we spread the love,” added Donovan who is a sacristan at his local church.
Donovan said the protests had “divided” opinion but, in his view, it was necessary to bring down fuel costs.
“Look, if they didn’t do it, the bread won’t be delivered, the milk won’t be delivered, and it meant a lot to them when we got out of the car with boxes of food for them.”
Buoyed on by the success of their food drop, Donovan pledged: “We’ll do it again.”
