Shell to Sea activists board supply ship to Solitaire in Killibegs

6th July 2009
This after­noon sev­en Shell to Sea activists in kayaks vis­it­ed the Toisa Inde­pen­dent, which sup­plies pipe to the Soli­taire, a ves­sel used by Shell to lay the Cor­rib gas pipeline. The Soli­taire, which left Broad­haven Bay (1) yes­ter­day after lay­ing the first sec­tion of pipe for the project, has been the tar­get of sev­er­al actions recent­ly in the con­tin­u­al cam­paign against Shell. (2) Despite Shel­l’s increas­ing­ly heavy hand­ed response to protests, Shell to Sea activist’s have con­tin­ued their fight.

Niall Har­nett, speak­ing from the protest in Killy­begs today said “We demand that this port stops sup­port­ing the Cor­rib gas project which is destroy­ing the lives of the peo­ple in Erris. There has been much mis­in­for­ma­tion about the Cor­rib gas pipeline in the media, as cam­paign­ers con­tin­ue to protest in order to bring a halt to this unsafe project which threat­ens the homes and liveli­hoods of many in the local area”. The pipeline would car­ry unprocessed gas across the region to the refin­ery at Bel­lan­aboy. (4)

Har­nett con­tin­ued “We are also act­ing in protest against the theft of Ire­land’s nat­ur­al resources. At a time when unem­ploy­ment lev­els are set to reach record num­bers and the gov­ern­ment attacks ordi­nary peo­ple with levies tax­es and pay cuts it is obscene that Shell are allowed to steal bil­lions of euro’s of our resources.” (5)

St.John O Donob­hain, also on the protest, said. “Shel­l’s attempts to pre­tend the Cor­rib project is a done-deal is mis­lead­ing. This is project is unjust, ille­gal, and immoral. It will fail.”