3-year campaign ends in hours

February 2000

The three-year anti-road campaign by Glen of the Downs protesters ended with more of a bang than a whimper, when Wicklow County Council moved into the woodland… and had virtually completed their controversial tree felling programme within hours.

In total nearly 150 trees were taken from east and west side of the N11 carriageway, but less than a quarter of these were of the towering and majestic hardwood variety which have so often been the focus of the Glen debate.

Council workers and contractors moved onto the site at close to 10am on Thursday morning, accompanied by more than 20 garda officers out of Bray and Greystones stations.

They met with little resistance from the tree protest campaigners, who confided that the move had caught them somewhat unawares – coming as it did just days before they were expected to return to fight their corner in the Dublin courts.

Less than a dozen activists were in the Glen camp at the time, and while some of them climbed trees in areas of the forestry which were to be the target of felling, others watched on tearfully as the local authority’s crew and contractors worked throughout the morning.

By 1 p.m. the job was virtually finished – the removal of 150 trees bring to nearly 700 the total amount felled since Wicklow County Council first attempted to clear a stretch of the Glen woodland to accommodate their planned road widening scheme, two years ago.

Gardai made just one arrest, of a protester who encroached into the cut zone during the felling operation.

According to the garda spokesman, he will be summoned to appear in court to answer a pubic order charge.