Fire crews bring soup to fuel the picketers

"We'll be here every day - as long as they need us," says sub-officer Tom Kelly of Dublin Fire Brigade. Ladling out steaming vegetable soup from the back of a fire engine yesterday afternoon, he explains that he and his men "wouldn't see the girls go hungry."

The 17 picketing nurses, at the North Circular Road entrance to the Mater Hospital, were in good spirits as they gathered for the soup and sandwiches being handed out by firefighter Paul Holmes. He says he and his colleague, Frank Rock, made the soup in the morning at Tara Street fire station.

"It's gorgeous home-made soup," he says. "We've already been to Holles Street and Temple Street, and we'll be going up to the girls at Beaumont. We're on duty today but as long as there are no emergencies for us we'll be doing what we can . . . It's called solidarity. We remember what it's like to be on strike, from 1988 when we were on strike for eight weeks, and the support we got."

While Sunday lunch is being served passing motorists honk their horns in support. A motorcycle garda adds a thumbs up to the noisy show of camaraderie.

Across the road gardai in the North Circular Road station confirm that they have been bringing tea and biscuits to the picketers all week.

"God, there were some days there during the week when it was lashing down. You couldn't leave them without doing something," comments a young garda on the inquiries desk. Another who emerges from the back office agrees. "They deserve every bit of support they get. And we're next," he adds with a grin.

Next door is the newly-opened Women's Prison at Mountjoy, where the branch of the Prison Officers' Association has voted to open the canteen to the nurses for the duration of the strike.

"The public has been absolutely fantastic in their support," comments a spokeswoman for the hospital strike committee. Local pubs have sent down teas and sandwiches to the 60 or so nurses on the three pickets around the hospital each day. "And several medical supply companies have been sending food."

At Beaumont Hospital, also on the north side, 17 nurses are picketing. Mr Patrick Rea, an elderly out-patient who is on his way in to have a dressing on his nose checked, hands them a plastic bag full of chocolate bars.

"We'll be fat as pigs by the end of the strike," laughs Ms Ciara Corrigan, an out-patient nurse.