Extra gardai on duty at Shell pipeline after €150,000 damage to machinery

30 June 2013 Extra gar­dai are on duty in Co Mayo this week­end after vio­lence broke out at a protest against the Shell gas pipeline last Sun­day when a secu­ri­ty guard had his arm bad­ly injured and €150,000 worth of dam­age was done to machin­ery, writes Jim Cusack.

30 June 2013 Extra gar­dai are on duty in Co Mayo this week­end after vio­lence broke out at a protest against the Shell gas pipeline last Sun­day when a secu­ri­ty guard had his arm bad­ly injured and €150,000 worth of dam­age was done to machin­ery, writes Jim Cusack.

Six­ty pro­test­ers, most­ly local peo­ple but includ­ing anar­chists who trav­elled to Ire­land for the G8 sum­mit protest, were said to have been involved. Gar­dai made six arrests last Wednes­day and Thurs­day after exam­in­ing CCTV images and are prepar­ing pros­e­cu­tions files.

The pro­test­ers tar­get­ed a con­struc­tion site at Augh­oose last week­end as part of an annu­al protest cam­paign, and secu­ri­ty guards at the scene were assault­ed.