Hundreds of motorists dropped into the Glen of the Downs, Co Wicklow, yesterday to meet the protesters and see how many trees were cut down last Tuesday when the county council started its road-widening works.
The motorists and their families chatted with the protesters, surveyed the scene and then left. However, with north and southbound cars all slowing down to look at the cut trees and scrub, traffic was down to a crawl on this usually fast stretch of road.
A Garda spokesman said: "There is nothing happening there today. Things are quiet. There is nothing happening except for the heavy rain."
Wicklow County Council has employed a security firm to ensure there is no further incursion on its lands at the Glen of the Downs, following Wednesday's High Court order forbidding trespass by ecowarriors camped in the Glen.
As the security men moved in on Thursday night, it emerged that the vast majority of campaigners are not in fact camped on lands owned by the council, or needed for its proposed road-widening. The council says it hired the security firm to prevent a new camp being established on lands or in the trees where the planned road-widening is to take place.
Council workers supported by gardai and security men have erected signs bearing copies of the High Court order in the vicinity of the camp. Copies of the order were also served on some campaigners. However, one campaigner said the arrival of the security firm made little difference. "We offered them tea and some food but they declined," he said. Meanwhile, the campaigners continued making their "lock-ins" in preparation for any further confrontation but insisted that they had nothing to do with the insertion of ceramic pegs in the trees, which would damage chainsaws and sawmills.