The situation in Erris Co. Mayo has escalated into a sordid state of affairs, with two fishermen being held by force by two men in balaclavas at 2am on Thursday the 11th of June. The fishermen, Pat O’Donnell and Martin McDonnell, are both locals opposed to the controversial Corrib gas project which is currently being overseen by The Royal Dutch Shell Company.
The two fishermen were returning to Ballyglass pier, having been fishing out at sea, when their boat was boarded by four masked men. When Mr. O’Donnell and Mr. McDonnell had been rendered helpless, the boarders proceeded to move below decks and sink the ‘Iona Isle’, the trawler belonging to Mr. O’Donnell. Both men are now being tended to in Castlebar general hospital.
These attacks come shortly after roughly thirty Shell to Sea activists appeared in Bellmullet district court yesterday for assorted acts of civil disobedience relating to the proposed pipeline project. However a number of members of An Garda Síochanna were also summoned by the judge for possible acts of misconduct, misuse of authority and illegal behaviour relating to Shell to Sea protests.
The assaults carried out on the fishermen bear an uncanny resemblance to that which occurred almost a month and a half ago on local farmer and Goldman environmental prize winner Willie Corduff.
The recent developments here in Erris are becoming an increasing cause for concern for local people attempting to halt Shell’s work in order to defend their own livelihoods. Many families here are completely dependent on the local environment to produce a source of income. Having fishing grounds polluted by dredging work, or pipelines dragged through one’s fields is likely to evoke strong protest. Albeit most local people who oppose the project initially felt that there was little or no chance of the situation unravelling to the extent it would be so effortlessly comparable to the Ogoni saga in Nigeria.
More activists were arrested yesterday evening after they had assisted local men in barricading narrow choke points of road which lead to the Shell compound at Glengad, which is still devoid of the sufficient planning permission. One man had hoisted himself up onto the cab of a truck in an attempt to halt the illegal work, much to the surprise of local people and Garda present at the scene. The driver elected to accelerate down a steep hill with the man still on top of the vehicle. Two Shell to Sea activists were violently apprehended on the road and brought to Bellmullet Garda station where they’ve been held all night. They have been brought to court this morning without legal representation and the state is attempting to put them on remand. This means they will be held in jail until the next court hearing in July.
Also at half four earlier this morning fourteen people from the Rossport Solidarity Camp disrupted work whilst kayaking in bay where Shell are currently dredging. This resulted in the arrest of six people and police also slashed kayaks. Over the past ten days dredgers have been boarded on two occasions where activists climbed on top of diggers and stopped work. A number of injuries have been sustained during water actions injuries at the hands of the IRMS security, employed by Shell to triturate the campaign opposing the theft of billions of euro worth of gas.
The global pressure has been mounting significantly on Shell in recent times, with much media focus surrounding the Wiwa family lawsuits against them in New York. Shell was being sued for human rights abuses in the Ogoni region of Nigeria dating back to the early nineties, however Shell decided to settle out of court to the sum of $15.5 million dollars.
In the face of one of the world’s biggest multinational corporations backed by the state and a team of security, many of whom are known fascists and mercenaries, the community still stand strong in defence of their environment and livelihoods. The Rossport Solidarity Camp is providing active support to the community, please come and help!