Carrickmines Castle Blockaded

dublin | miscellaneous | feature Friday January 03, 2003 03:25 by IMC Editorial Group - IMC Ireland

On Thursday, 2nd January blockades were raised at Carrickmines Castle due to the presence of heavy equipment, contrary to the agreement between the Carrickminders and the archaeological contractor, Valerie J. Keeley Inc.
At 8 a.m., approximately 20 protestors who had stayed the night were joined by local residents and the media to greet the archaeologists. The Carrickminders took down the blockade when they received assurances from company representatives that the large JCB digger would be removed from the site and all of the backfilled areas would be uncovered again before the end of the dig.
At 3pm Friday the blockades were raised again by locking the gate at the entrance of the Castle's site in S. Co. Dublin. This was due to the archaeologists moving a large digger out the Castle yard to the south side of the enclosure using it for Archeology work. In a statement the Carrickminders said they would "allow archeological excavations to continue but will peacefully prevent large diggers and machinery from entering the sensitive archeological site. The peaceful blockade will continue Monday and until such time as the digger as removed completely from the Castle site."

See photos of the blockade
The Carrickminders site for up to date information and how to help.