On the anniversary of the imprisonment of the Rossport Five, Shell’s peat stripping continues

Bel­lan­aboy, Fri­day June 29th 2007

In Erris, protests con­tin­ue every day at the site of the pro­posed refin­ery at Bel­lan­aboy, Coun­ty Mayo.

Last Fri­day, June 29th, was the sec­ond anniver­sary of the impris­on­ment of the Ross­port Five. The day saw the con­tin­u­ing of the oper­a­tion to strip the sur­face peat away from the Bel­lan­aboy refin­ery site, and as is now nor­mal, local peo­ple protest­ing were joined by sup­port­ers of the Shell to Sea cam­paign from oth­er parts of Ire­land and abroad.

As usu­al, the Gar­da response to the protests was bru­tal. One pro­test­er was arrest­ed and many more were assault­ed. Gar­daí also threw activists into the deep ditch­es near the Bel­lan­aboy site.

Videos of the protests on Fri­day morn­ing can be seen here: http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=kAXKHu3_bKo

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=tSMF4GgnC_I

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=u7jnUOq8LYA

or check www.youtube.ie/shelltohell

The Gar­daí were said to be sur­prised at the num­ber of pro­test­ers at the site on Fri­day morn­ing, while many peo­ple present com­plained that the police were suf­fer­ing from the effects of the night before. Pro­test­ers com­ment­ed on the notice­able smell of alco­hol com­ing from a lot of the offi­cers, and their gen­er­al­ly dishev­elled appear­ance, as well as their aggres­sive and juve­nile behav­iour. One gar­da, when con­front­ed with the fact that his behav­iour was not accept­able, loud­ly declared “I’m allowed to drink when I’m off duty!”.

Many peo­ple are still angry with the Gar­daí over their treat­ment of a local landown­er whose prop­er­ty they tres­passed onto to allow Shel­l’s con­trac­tors to install a secu­ri­ty cab­in near the pier at Pol­lo­tomais, across the estu­ary from Ross­port. The por­ta­cab­in has recent­ly been removed by Shell, but not before legal action had to be threat­ened.

Many local peo­ple accuse the Gar­daí of intim­i­da­tion of the elder­ly landown­er, putting him under such stress that he had to be admit­ted to hos­pi­tal. His fam­i­ly have said that he has been upset by a series of inci­dents includ­ing vis­its by up to six gar­daí to the house. Offi­cers asked him ques­tions and video-taped the respons­es. How­ev­er, the Gar­daí have denied there was any pres­sure or intim­i­da­tion involved.

Over the last few months thou­sands of tons of sur­face peat have been removed from the refin­ery site at Bel­lan­aboy and dumped 11KM away, in advance of the Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion Agency deci­sion on whether the refin­ery will receive a licence to oper­ate.

New min­is­ter with respon­si­bil­i­ty for the scheme, Eamon Ryan, has been asked for a meet­ing with local peo­ple and oth­er sup­port­ers of Shell to Sea, but so far has not respond­ed. In the com­ing weeks and months, it is expect­ed that more peo­ple from out­side the area will join the protests.

One of the Ross­port Five, Micheál Ó Seigh­in said recent­ly:
“We wel­come peo­ple tak­ing non-vio­lent direc­tion to stop Shel­l’s scheme. This has nev­er been a pure­ly local issue. It has always had nation­al and inter­na­tion­al dimen­sions. Not only are peo­ple con­cerned enti­tled to protest, they are oblig­ed to stand up for what is right.
Relat­ed Link: http://www.youtube.ie/shelltohell

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The activist who was arrest­ed on Fri­day morn­ing was tak­en in hand­cuffs to Bell­mul­let Gar­da sta­tion where he was detained for four hours before being charged with var­i­ous pub­lic order offences, includ­ing that he “did with­out law­ful author­i­ty or rea­son­able excuse, wil­ful­ly pre­vent or inter­rupt the free pas­sage of a vehi­cle…”.

See also : A Taint­ed Process http://www.indymedia.ie/article/83016, Pros­e­cut­ing the Gar­daí http://www.indymedia.ie/article/83096, Court Report http://www.indymedia.ie/article/82730, Por­ta­cab­in inci­dent http://www.indymedia.ie/article/82983,