 Twenty-seven ICMSA picketers outside Leinster House, were arrested on 27 April 1966 under the "Offences Against the State Act", an act originally intended for use against the IRA.78 were arrested the following day, and 80 a day later as the dispute escalated.The general public was supportive of the farmers, who were not in a position to hold a strike to air their grievances, and who were clearly only posing a problem to the Minister, rather than the state.