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News :: Environment : International |
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Emergency in Ireland: Hunger Strike and Arrests in Erris as Solitaire arrives |
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by dunk
Email: fuspey (nospam) yahoo.co.uk (unverified!)
Address: Ireland / Barcelona |
12 Sep 2008
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After 8 years of struggle, brutality from Police, selling of resources, the last act of non-violence has been used to bring about a halt to this criminal give away of Irish resourses as well as ecological destruction of Local habitat. Shell still seek exploitation of Irish resources. They will not win.
Rossport Abú |
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Irish coverage: http://www.indymedia.ie/article/89019
Shell 2 Sea: http://www.corribsos.com/
Maura Harrington, a 54 year old Mayo woman is on hunger strike till death or her and her communities request for the departure of pipe lying boat "solitaire" from Irish waters.
The Solitaire is installing the offshore section of the Corrib Gas pipeline for Shell. The ship is supported by a number of Shell support craft, the Irish Police Water Unit and part of the Irish Navy. Stiff opposition has begun, with a local school teacher already on hunger strike. Hundreds of police officers are in the area, and the main road to the beach has been closed.
Local people have been alarmed to see so many police officers, and sinister figures in green rainjackets, who may be police (although the Irish Police, the Garda Siochána, usually wear blue) or could be Shell security or even members of the Irish Army.
Internet access in the area near the Shell compound has been cut off, and the main road to the beach has been blocked.
Opposition to the pipe laying operation consists of a number of environmental and political activists based in the Solidarity Camp, local fishermen who are worried about contamination of the waters they depend on, and many local people who are concerned that the offshore section of the Shell scheme is being put in place while no planning permission exists for the onshore section.
A local school principal, Maura Harrington, has vowed to refuse food until the ship leaves the area. She has parked her car in front of the Shell compound.
Fisherman from nearby Porturlin who refused to move their crab gear from the path of the Solitaire were arrested last night, and a large group of local people protested at the police station in Belmullet. They were released at midnight, went fishing this morning, and were immediately arrested again. Gardaí are threatening to detain anyone on any craft that approaches the path of the Solitiare.
Protesters are currently engaged in a series of actions designed to slow the project.
In 2005 a number of local people were jailed for 94 days for opposing the Shell project as it was then configured.
Since then, the project has been dogged by controversy, with many arrests, court cases, injuries, complaints to the Garda Complaints Board and Ombudsman, and political activity both in and outside the Dáil.
In recent weeks there have been 29 separate arrests in the area around Glengad beach, where the pipeline is due to make landfall.
Shell spokespeople have claimed that the project has not been affected by the protests. They say that recent delays to the project have been caused by severe weather.
Some newspapers have claimed that the project, which is being carried out by a consortium of companies including Statoil from Norway and Marathon Oil from Texas in the United States, will benefit the country, even though all of the natural gas will belong to the Corrib partners and no royalty will be charged. There is no contractual obligation for Shell, the scheme's major shareholder and operator, to sell any of the gas to Bord Gáis Éireann, and so the resource will be sold to the highest bidder.
Bord Gáis have confirmed that there will be no financial benefit to Irish consumers from the Corrib gas field.
Environmentalists have warned that the onshore section of the scheme, which includes a huge refinery being constructed nine kilometers inland at Bellanaboy, will be expanded and used to process gas from other fields off the west coast in the the future. They also say that Shell will use the precedent of an onshore refinery to strong arm their way into installing similar schemes in other places around the world. A production pipeline passing through a residential area is unprecedented.
Political campaigners point out that the terms under which Irish resources have been handed over to the oil companies mean there are no benefits for the people of Ireland.
The Irish government, including Green Party Ministers at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, has backed Shell's scheme. Last month the Garda released figures showing that 11 million euro had been spent policing the project since 2006, more than half the amount the force spent on fighting organised crime.
Activists on the ground in Mayo have asked for assistance. Those not in a position to travel to Mayo can hold solidarity protests (this article could be used as the basis for leaflets) at the Irish embassy or Shell petrol stations. Local politicians should be approached to put pressure on the government to suspend work on the offshore pipeline, at least until permission is granted for the onshore section. In Britian, Green Party politicians in Britain -who may have some influence over their counterparts in the Irish Green Party- should be contacted.
Rossport Solidarity Camp Returns to Glengad with a Fresh Call Out for Action. July
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/88841
Rossport Solidarity Camp Weekend (June 05, 2006)
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/76466
Audio from the weekend
Treasa Ni Ghearraigh and the bolivia situation
audio file 1 - enough!
Rossport woman Treasa Ni Ghearraigh tells us her views about the similarity between what is going on in Ireland and Bolivia after watching the film "Bolivia is not for sale", which documented the changes over the last decade in Bolivia -
her message to Bolivia in Gaeilge (the traditional language of Ireland that is still used in parts of the country and been revived in others) :
"Coinnigh suas an oidhreacht agus le cunamh Dé, ta tiocfaidh an taru ceart as an oidhearacht"
"keep up the effort, unity is power, enough, hopefully we will suceed"
http://radio.indymedia.org/uploads/rossport_treasa_and_bolivia_situation
15.10 mins
audio file 2- another world is not possible, its NECESSARY
Venezuela; grassroots women organisiing for the return of the oil wealth
after watching a film about recent events in Venezuela, a very good and wide ranging discussion followed, looking at things from "wages to housework, latino racism, alternative media, grassroots bottom up organising, global revolution
http://radio.indymedia.org/uploads/venezuala_and_women_revolution.wav
22.22mins - cuts short due to battery cut out
audio file 3- Bitchen' Kitchen: Tracey and Gráinne give us the low down
Irelands year and a half old kitchen collective outline what they are about: healthy, wholesome, and as tasty as f***
http://radio.indymedia.org/uploads/bitchin_kitchen.wav
8.12mins
audio file 4- bug protector girl
one girls uses her ingeniuoty to fend of the rossport bugs
http://radio.indymedia.org/uploads/bug_protector_girl.wav
1.10mins |
Click on image for a larger version  |
Click on image for a larger version  |
See also:
http://www.corribsos.com/
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/89019
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This work is in the public domain |
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Shell in Irish news and the video "Those who dance" |
by dunk
(No verified email address) |
17 Sep 2008
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You don't build trust through gunboat diplomacy
Irish Times, September 16
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2008/0916/1221430255121.html
A final opportunity exists for consent to replace coercion over the Corrib gas project; the State must take it, writes Fintan O'Toole...
..The Army hasn't been called in, but for the first time in the history of the State, the Naval Service has been deployed against a civilian protest.
The existing law was specifically changed for Shell - for the first time, a private company was allowed to obtain compulsory purchase orders against private citizens. This new legislation was so deeply flawed that it is probably invalid - the Government had to amend it subsequently and Shell used a different legal mechanism for the amended pipeline route.
When citizens can't look to the State for fairness, events spiral out of control. This whole problem is rooted in what Shell itself has acknowledged to be "a lack of dialogue and trust".
..a last opportunity to replace coercion with consent. Having supported the protesters and been elected partly on a promise to review the entire project, Eamon Ryan has a personal moral obligation to take on that responsibility.
Higgins urges ministerial action in Corrib gas row
Irish Times, September 16
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2008/0916/1221430254957.html
LABOUR PARTY president Michael D Higgins has called on Minister for Energy Eamon Ryan to provide leadership in relation to resolving the Corrib gas controversy.
...Speaking in Galway yesterday Mr Higgins said it was almost a year since a compromise proposal aimed at resolving the controversy had been submitted by three Erris priests to Mr Ryan, as Minister primarily responsible for the Corrib gas project.
Mr Higgins added that it was time that Mr Ryan addressed the "vacuum" which "he has left by not responding to the priests' plan".
Mr Ryan's inaction was "totally unhelpful", he said.
Bomb squad defuses device at Shell HQ
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2008/0916/1221430255966.html
Shell protester vows to continue hunger strike
Irish Examiner
http://www.irishexaminer.com/irishexaminer/pages/story.aspx-qqqg=ireland
Shell accused of 'project splitting'
Irish Independent
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/shell-accused-of-project-splitti
Related on imc-ie:
Shell concerned by explosive device
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/89122
Phoney bomb plot at Shell?
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/89119
...as Maura says" you could trust Shell as far as I could throw the Solitaire"
lastly, link to youtube film about what this is all about:
Those that dance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sfNGwIaNIg
Interview with Maura Harrington, c/o Revolt video
http://www.politube.org/show/914
related links to RTEs interviews
http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0910/corrib.html |
