M3 protestor ‘Squeak’ willing to die if construction resumes

IN HER own little world, Lisa Feeney or “Squeak” as she is called by her boyfriend and friends, has a bottle of whiskey, a few good books, vitamin tablets and a month’s supply of food and water to keep her alive in her underground tunnel.

But she is willing to die if construction work resumes in the grounds above her tunnel where the M3 Motorway serving Dublin to Meath is planned. The 26-year-old from Co Kerry has been planning her extreme form of protest for months, according to her friends. Her parents, family and friends could not stop her as she is “rationally thinking and extremely committed” to the cause.

A number of weeks back, they began digging the tunnel, which goes 6 metres (about 20 feet) underground and has a number of branches.

Walls are made with planks of wood, an over ground windmill provides electricity to supply a light and an air vent allows Squeak to breath.

“This was all very well planned,” said her friend Terry Canty, who is protesting over ground at the site at Rath Lugh, near the Tara complex.

Squeak has been underground for the past two weeks, coming up and down to see her boyfriend, Paddy, but only decided to lock herself down there when gardaí arrived at the scene on Thursday. Her last time going down for the next two months was filmed by RTÉ’s Prime Time on Thursday. She said: “I am prepared to stay down here and put my life on the line to stop the machinery from going above me.

“I’d warn anyone who is trying to remove me from here not to do so, you’re not getting me out of here by force.”

She said she will stay there “as long as it takes until people start thinking of the alternatives”.

The door of the tunnel is locked, only she can open it, and if attempts are made to open it, she will collapse the tunnel on top of herself, she said.

Now she talks to her boyfriend through a walkie-talkie.

“We keep checking her air supply every ten minutes or so, she’s in good spirit, she has food and water and some vitamins and she’s in good spirits as well,” said her boyfriend.

Lisa recently graduated from psychology from Trinity College Dublin, and got her nick-name because of a noise she made “probably when she was drunk”.

Terry said: “She’s extremely calm and extremely stubborn and she really believes in this.”

Some people believe that Lisa is actually destroying the monument she is attempting to save, by digging this tunnel. But Paddy said: “That’s completely laughable, the fact of the matter is that a road going through the site would be a lot more destruction than a small little tunnel. The road itself is considerably larger.”