Staff barricade Quinn workplaces in protest

Quinn Group employees and members of communities on both sides of the border, angered by what they've labelled a "senseless and damaging dispute" between the former Anglo Irish Bank, now IBRC and the Quinn family, have downed tools in an unofficial one-day work stoppage. From 7am on Monday, November 5, heavy agricultural machinery was moved into place, barricading the entrances to Quinn Group manufacturing facilities on the outskirts of Ballyconnell town at Rathkeelan. The coordinated protest then also blocked traffic on the R205 Gortmullen, where a large tractor with slurry tanker was manoeuvred across the roadway while another was similarly place further across the border, on the Derrylin side at Gortaree. A statement handed out to those gathered said, "We have no interest in covering old ground and we make no pronouncements on the rights and wrongs of either party in this pointless dispute. "We demand however, a resolution that will save jobs, our communities and our future livelihoods."