Corrib campaigner released from Castlerea prison

21st June 2013

Cor­rib cam­paign­er released from Castlerea prison

 

Today at Har­ris­town court, Castl­rea Co. Roscom­mon, Liam Walsh Hef­fer­nan (28) of Castle­bar Co. Mayo, was released from Castlerea prison after 10 days in cus­tody. For the last 5 days of his impris­on­ment he had been on hunger strike protest­ing against his deten­tion and the extra­or­di­nary con­di­tions of the bail terms that he had thus far refused.

 

Mr Hef­fer­nan was arrest­ed on the 12th of June while protest­ing against the Shell Cor­rib gas project at Augh­oose Co. Mayo. At Bel­mul­let Gar­da sta­tion he was charged under sec­tions 8 and 9 of the Pub­lic Order Act. He was offered bail, with the extra­or­di­nary con­di­tion that he stay away from Augh­oose, site of the Shell tun­nelling works for the Cor­rib gas project. Augh­oose is also the loca­tion of the Ross­port Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp and is a cen­tral focus of protest against the project. Mr Hef­fer­nan refused the bail con­di­tions, and has been held on remand until his release today.

 

On the 17th of June Mr Hef­fer­nan began a hunger strike against his extra­or­di­nary bail terms and his con­tin­ued deten­tion. This morn­ing at a bail hear­ing in Har­ris­town court, Mr Hef­fer­nan, rep­re­sent­ing him­self, made an appli­ca­tion to the Judge Browne to change the terms of the bond, in order to per­mit him to return to Augh­oose. The Judge said that he was unable to alter the bail terms in that court. Mr Hef­fer­nan then signed the bail bond, stat­ing that he would chal­lenge the bail terms and con­test the pub­lic order charges. Mr Hef­fer­nan’s first appear­ance in rela­tion to the charges is on the 10th of July, Bel­mul­let dis­trict court.

 

Upon his release Mr Hef­fer­nan said: “The state has attempt­ed to lim­it my free­dom of speech and move­ment, by apply­ing these extra­or­di­nary con­di­tions on my bail. Peo­ple in Mayo have suf­fered decades of injus­tice because of the impo­si­tion of the Cor­rib gas project. What we do with our nat­ur­al resources should be open to nation­al debate, and for any project to pro­ceed, the con­sent of the peo­ple must be sought.”