Upcoming Ireland Trip & Fuel Shortages

Could you change your rental to an electric car?
Or cancel the car and use public transportation?
Not sure where else you're planning to stop, but in Dingle, there appear to be two bike rental places. Both have e-bikes.

Identify some backup transportation options. For a rough idea of the options, go to Googlemaps and plug in your route. For example, you can get from Dublin to Dingle via a combination of train and bus.

Fuels price have increased the equivalent of about $1.11 a gallon. Round trip from Dublin to Dingle would be about 450 miles. Assuming the vehicle got 25 miles per gallon, you’d use 18 gallons, meaning you’d spend approximately $20 more to fill up.

Stay with the vehicle you rented and don’t wait until the fuel gauge is on E to fill up. Switching to an EV brings up a whole different set of things you’d need to be concerned with (charging stations in rural areas, how to pay at them, waiting for a vehicle to charge if the charging point even works, etc.).

While one would hope this would be resolved by May 5th, this is concerning. I just read this in the Irish times: https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2026/04/11/live-fuel-protests-ireland-m50-dublin-luas/

And given how a relatively small group can blockade a refinery and the complexity of clearing large over-sized equipment and how weird viral protests on Facebook, Tictok and X can be, I think your caution here is warranted.

This reminds me of the so called trucker’s strike in Canada where a small group can have a big disruptive impact.

Ireland is such a wonderful country. Hope this passes as quickly as it came. And on the positive side, even if you run into some logistical issues, know that Ireland is dense with good music, cheer and lively pubs.

Good luck and happy travels

It’s impossible to say what the situation will be a month from now. The road blockades have been really disruptive but who knows if that will still be an issue by the time you travel. Same with the fuel situation. Don’t panic yet.

I’ve just spent a few days with friends from Ireland and they had to change their travel plans due to the blockades. There are definitely issues with sourcing fuel as well leading to long queues in some places.

In Dingle right now. Had a 1 1/2 hour delay going from Dublin to Kinsale on 4/7. Ok getting to Dingle on 4/9, just 1 or 2 detours. This morning 4/11, one paper said it may be settled, other paper said not settled yet. Be sure to have a good road map. You may have to get off a motorway and take small roads. I think Dublin is still all messed up.

We are family of 3 went to Ireland two years ago and relied on public transport and local group tours. Obviously we didn't go to remote places, but we were able to see the big attractions outside Dublin such as Newgrange, gap of dunloe, Dingle Peninsula, Muckross house, Aran island, walk from Doolin to Cliff of Moher, Burren, kinvara, Galway and Connemara.
It can be done, require a bit more planning.
I got tons of input from TA when planning our trip.