June 25, 2010
Things are getting very busy here – after a peaceful June Gathering the camp is once more set to become a focal point for resisting Shell pipeline work. Shell are due in the estuary any day now to drill 80 boreholes – pipeline survey work that should take all summer. Yesterday we shut down the Shell office in Belmullet. Today Maura Harrington was jailed for non payment of fines. Niall and Pat are still in jail. Generally it seems that lots of people are wising up to the oil industry in the wake of the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico….
Roof Occupation Protest at Shell’s Belmullet Offices
Campaigners hung a banner reading “Energy shouldn’t cost the earth” from the roof of Shell offices in Belmullet on Thursday morning at 8am. This protest connected the environmental disaster suffered by the fishing community & people of Louisiana with the threat faced by the fishing community and people of Erris. In particular the protest was in solidarity with Pat O’Donnell who has been jailed for his courageous defense of the seas and his livelihood.
The protest blocked the entrance to the offices preventing Shell workers from entering that day!
Press Release and photos here: http://www.indymedia.ie/article/97054
Foreshore License Granted – Borehole Drilling Imminent
Yesterday Shell circulated a letter giving notice that the borehole drilling would commence “in the coming days”.
Recently Shell got the sign-off from “Green” Minister John Gormley on plans to bore 80 bore-holes in Sruwaddacon bay. Once again the community and camp will be opposing the Shell work both on land and at sea. Water-action training is ongoing. It will be a summer long job if they get started, so support up here would be great whenever possible. Now would be a good time to come.
There have already been contractors around doing initial surveys for the contract to construct the 5km tunnel under the estuary – one candidate company is called ICOP from Italy. Pressure on them would be no harm.
Here is their website: http://www.icop.it/tool/home.php
And address:
I.CO.P. S.p.A.
via Silvio Pellico 2
33031 Basiliano UD,
Italy
And contacts: info@icop.it, tunnelcom@icop.it, fondazioni@icop.it, amministrazione@icop.it, personale@icop.it, acquisti@icop.it, tecnici@icop.it
T. +39 0432-838611
F. +39 0432-838681
Please write to Pat & Niall – political prisoners
As a lot of you are aware Pat O’Donnell and Niall Harnett are currently in Castlerea Prison for convictions arising from protests against the Corrib Gas project. You can read more on Pat’s jailing here: http://www.shelltosea.com/content/shell-corrib-gas-who-…llies or more on Niall’s jailing here: http://www.indymedia.ie/article/96547
Please also ‘Like’ the ‘Support Shell to Sea prisoners of conscience’ page on Facebook (if you’re on it): http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Support-Shell-to-Sea-prisoners-of-conscience/112831115416555?ref=ts and Pat’s page at http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Pat-ODonnell/313999028104?ref=ts
Letters to Pat and Niall greatly appreciated –
Pat O Donnell / Niall Harnett,
Castlerea Prison,
Harristown,
Castlerea,
Co Roscommon,
Rossport Solidarity Camp Wishlist
You might have something lying around that you don’t want or need anymore.
At the moment we could use:
* Wheelie bins, plastic barrels, pallets (will probably find locally)
* Working Rechargeable Power tools
* Boats and outboard motors of any size or make: Power boats, sail boats, rigid sea kayaks would be especially useful as they can’t be punctured or sunk too easily
* Bandsaw
* PV panels, inverters, batteries
* Trailer that a Ford Transit could tow. Something like a horse trailer and fairly weather proof would be ideal to transport bikes.
http://www.shelltosea.com
rossportsolidaritycamp at gmail dot com
—
Annual Rossport Gathering report
Supporters from around the world joined in the annual gathering over the past weekend at the Rossport Solidarity Camp at Broadhaven Bay, County Mayo in support of the Shell to Sea campaign. A large contingent of cyclists travelled from Britain via Merthyr Tydfil in Wales where another campaign is focussed to stop an ugly open-cast coal mine which is destroying the environment, polluting air and water and endangering the community.
The gathering at Rossport has been held every year since before the jailing of the Rossport 5 in 2005 – local residents who refused, for reasons of health, safety and clean environment, to allow Shell / Statoil to lay an experimental high-pressure raw gas pipeline through their properties. The Irish government had, in an unprecedented move, provided the multi-nationals with compulsory purchase orders. The five were given indefinite prison sentences but were released after 3 months following massive public outcry. A later hearing vindicated them when the original pipeline route was rejected because of dangerous proximity to dwellings.
A new route is now being put forward, but is still considered unacceptable by Shell to Sea who believe that the only safe way to bring the gas ashore is by refining it at sea and bringing it in at low pressure. The dangers have been well highlighted by disasters worldwide including the Piper Alpha explosion, the pipeline explosion at Carlsbad, New Mexico (August 2000 when a family of 12 living over 200 metres away were completely wiped out), the outrageous death and destruction in Nigeria and now the BP oil disaster.
The Merthyr to Mayo cycle rally called at Castlerea prison to support fisherman Pat O’Donnell and fellow Shell to Sea supporter Niall Harnett who are both now serving jail terms for obstructing police who had been brought in the ensure Shell employees were not hampered in their work – the Irish government takes care of big business without regard for the livelihoods of the local community and the health of their environment !
The whole project was pushed ahead without consulting the local people – the refinery, 9 km inland (selected because it was state-owned forestry land) now approaching completion and the seaward pipeline layed. But still no legally permitted nor locally agreed inland route ! And not likely to be ! Local campaigners have had their lives totally disrupted for more than 10 years now with this nonsense and are utterly committed to the point of putting their lives on the line, literally.