GOING THE EXTRA MILE… MARCHERS ARE EN ROUTE TO THE DÁIL

THEIR boots were made for walking – and they are on their way to put the boot in to the Government.

The Donegal marchers made it to Mullingar last night, leaving just 50 miles of their 250mile trek to Dublin left to complete.

The group of six men, one woman and two dogs set out from the most northern point in Ireland, Malin Crown, on Friday March 9, and will arrive in Dublin this Friday night.

The protest group includes a husband and wife and their 11-year-old son, as well as family men, jobseekers and a business owner.

But there has been one casualty in the Donegal Action Against Austerity, with springer spaniel Max having to retire hurt. ‘We were sad to lose Max,’ the group’s leader Joe Murphy told the Irish Daily Mail last night.

‘One of the lads brought him out for a walk and Max ran off after something and stood on some barbed wire.

‘He got a nasty cut on his foot and he wasn’t able to walk with us any more.’

Two more of the marchers, John Mclaughlin and Ciarán Moyne, will return to the march today after they had to take yesterday off to attend the funeral of a brother of one of the march’s organisers. The 30-year old man died in a tragic accident abroad. The group are covering 15 miles a day and are on schedule to arrive in the Phoenix Park on Friday evening, the final day to register for the Household Charge. The last leg of the trek is from the park to the National Convention Centre on Dublin’s quays.

There they will join up with other protest groups outside the venue where the Fine Gael Árd Fheis is taking place.

Mr Murphy said there could be thousands turning out this weekend to remind Fine Gael that they will not be silenced.

‘It’s been a long road, but we’re nearly there,’ he said. ‘We’ll be meeting up with other protest groups from all over and we’re going to make some noise when we get together.’