éirígí: For A Socialist Republic

On the morning of Saturday July 29th 2006 about seventy people took off in the pouring rain on a trek that would, for some of them, last for over a fortnight and stretch over two hundred miles across the country.

Day one - Rossport in the rain

"The Long Walk" from Rossport to Dublin was organised by the Shell To Sea group to raise awareness for the nationwide campaign against proposals to build an experimental gas refinery and upstream pipeline on land in the remote Barony of Erris in north west Mayo.

The journey took the travellers through two of the four provinces and across seven different counties, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Irish Sea, and from a remote rural landscape to the urban sprawl of a twenty-first-century capital city.

Through all these contrasts two things remained the same... the determination of "The Long Walkers" and the overwhelming warmth and support from the ordinary people of Ireland.

DAY 1: Rossport to Bellanaboy - 9.7 miles (15.6 km)
A biblical downpour signalled the start of the adventure, but spirits were high following more than two months of preparation involving route planning, physical training and logistics work. The sun came out for a couple of miles and all reached the proposed refinery site at Bellanaboy in one piece, where tea and sandwiches awaited.