Rossport round-up: come fight Shell with us

Day of Chaos against Shell at Aghoos Com­pound
23.08.2011
A mass tres­pass stops work, one per­son on top of a dig­ger for 4 hours

Today 25 peo­ple from Ross­port Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp sus­tained a bar­rage of actions against the site Shell is prepar­ing for its tun­nel bor­ing machine. Despite 80 secu­ri­ty and three vans of gar­daí they were unable to keeps the pro­test­ers out. In the chaos that ensued one per­son got through the lines to d‑lock them­selves to one of the dig­gers and remained up there stop­ping work for 4 hours. Else­where oth­er dig­gers had to stop work­ing as pro­tes­tors approached.

Con Cough­lan, one of those who one of those who breached secu­ri­ty said, “It was an incred­i­ble day. We pushed and pushed. No mat­ter how many times they dragged us out we kept going back. Peo­ple were com­ing from the back, oth­ers were launch­ing them­selves over the fences at the front.”

The day start­ed at 2pm with three sep­a­rate groups com­ing from dif­fer­ent direc­tions. From ear­ly on they began being car­ried out of the com­pound by pri­vate secu­ri­ty, but this was no deter­rent with peo­ple sim­ply dust­ing them­selves off and going back around. Despite their much greater num­bers, secu­ri­ty strug­gled to keep up with the con­stant pres­sure. Numer­ous weak­ness­es in the site perime­ter were found and used to keep peo­ple com­ing in.

It was in a moment of chaos that one per­son found the oppor­tu­ni­ty to slip under a fence and made the dash for the near­est dig­ger. Secu­ri­ty, caught on the hop, despite hold­ing off a num­ber of oth­er pro­test­ers, failed to stop her get­ting on top and using a d‑lock she had brought with her to attach her neck to the roof sec­tion. She then set­tled down for a nap while the rest got on with the day. She was there for four hours and was not arrest­ed.

Most of the work going on was to build the pal­isade fenc­ing for the inner com­pound of the site. This is being sup­plied and installed by Shevlins Engi­neer­ing.

Grainne Bradaigh , anoth­er of those who found a way in said, “We had fun. It was real­ly very empow­er­ing. You could see how effec­tive we were being from the way the work­ers were so frus­trat­ed. It was the first time I’ve done some­thing like this, but I’m def­i­nite­ly up for it again. The gar­daí were out­side act­ing as pri­vate secu­ri­ty for the trac­tors com­ing in, but there was noth­ing they could to do to stop us inside Shel­l’s com­pound.”

Actions have been tak­ing place against Shell in co. Mayo all sum­mer, oppos­ing the con­struc­tion of a pipeline that will pump high pres­sure gas through the beau­ti­ful Broad­haven Bay. It is part of a broad­er cam­paign by locals and those who sup­port their efforts, that has been going on for ten years. Since May a camp has been estab­lished above the impor­tant site at Augh­oose. It is open to all – if you are inter­est­ed in com­ing along, please vis­it the web­site at www.rossportsolidaritycamp.org

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Dou­ble Bar­rel Con­crete Lock-on Stops Shell

Mon­day 22nd August at 6am, two peo­ple locked their arms into con­crete bar­rels in the road between Shel­l’s Bal­linaboy refin­ery and the tun­nel­ing com­pound in Augh­oose. The lock-on last­ed for 7 hours, stop­ping all deliv­er­ies to the com­pound dur­ing that time.

Cur­rent­ly Shell are try­ing to set up a com­pound in Augh­oose, 3km from the refin­ery at Bal­linaboy. They are bring­ing in fenc­ing, bog­mats, steel gird­ers and oth­er equip­ment in order to secure the com­pound. Once it is secure Shell intends to remove 75,000 tonnes of peat from the bog. This bog is an impor­tant wet­land habi­tat, home to frogs and newts and loads of diverse flo­ra and fau­na. After remov­ing the peat they plan on bring­ing in the tun­nel bor­ing machine and begin the tun­nel under the estu­ary for the onshore pipeline.

The con­crete lock-ons were set up at 6am on Mon­day. As Shell nor­mal­ly begins deliv­er­ies to the com­pound from 7am, this 7 hour lock-on effec­tive­ly stopped all deliv­er­ies for 6 hours.

The Gar­da cut­ting team which spe­cialis­es in cut­ting pro­test­ers out of lock-ons and get­ting peo­ple down from high places, did not arrive until 9am. The first per­son was cut out of the first con­crete bar­rel just before 11am. With­in 15 min­utes they began cut­ting the sec­ond con­crete bar­rel to remove the sec­ond per­son. The sec­ond per­son was cut out just before 1pm, at which point the guards called Mayo Coun­ty Coun­cil to clean up the mess of the cut up lock-on.

Local res­i­dents and the Ross­port Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp are doing con­tin­u­ous actions against Shell. If you’ve been mean­ing to come but just haven’t got­ten around to it yet, come for a vis­it. There is plen­ty to do here includ­ing gar­den­ing, cook­ing, site main­te­nance, talk­ing to locals or writ­ing indy­media arti­cles, as well as sit­ting in a lock-on if you like that kin­da thing. The only way to real­ly under­stand what is hap­pen­ing here is to come and see for your­self. The camp is locat­ed in a field in Augh­oose over­look­ing the Shell com­pound, between Pul­lath­omas and Bal­linaboy.

To con­tact the camp, ring 085 114 1170 or email rossportsolidaritycamp[at]gmail[dot]com
http://shelltosea.com

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Gar­daí and Shell Secu­ri­ty Work Hand in Hand Block­ing Pub­lic Roads

An Gar­da Siochana and Inte­grat­ed Risk Man­age­ment Ser­vices (IRMS) polic­ing the roads togeth­er

Mon­day 15th August at 9am a group of 12 peo­ple went down to Shel­l’s com­pound in Augh­oose to stop work. Even­tu­al­ly Shel­l’s pri­vate secu­ri­ty (IRMS) and the Gar­daí began work­ing togeth­er to police the roads and pro­tect deliv­er­ies of equip­ment to the com­pound.

After about an hour of pro­test­ers main­tain­ing a pres­ence on the road and slow­ing the work of the dig­gers, Gar­daí and IRMS formed a line con­tain­ing pro­test­ers on the oppo­site side of the road from Shel­l’s com­pound. The pri­vate secu­ri­ty have absolute­ly no juris­dic­tion on a pub­lic road, so they have no right to be con­tain­ing and han­dling peo­ple.

At one point an IRMS man­ag­er gave orders to the Gar­daí, telling them to back off and allow traf­fic to pass. Sev­er­al cars were held up for at least 15 min­utes while Shell deliv­ered a new dig­ger to the com­pound. In Shel­l’s traf­fic man­age­ment plan it states that the pub­lic road will remain open at all times, how­ev­er in the past few weeks we have seen IRMS clos­ing the pub­lic road for up to 30 min­utes at a time.

On Tues­day 16th August a group of peo­ple went down to the com­pound again to stop the work, this time enter­ing the com­pound from around the side. Some peo­ple were car­ried or escort­ed by IRMS up to the pub­lic road, no arrests were made.

The protests are con­tin­u­ous, and peo­ple are need­ed to sus­tain actions. If you are think­ing of vis­it­ing the camp, any time is a good time. The camp is locat­ed in a field oppo­site the Shell com­pound in Augh­oose, between Bal­linaboy and Pul­lath­omas.

To con­tact the camp, ring 085 114 1170 or email rossportsolidaritycamp[at]gmail[dot]com

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Some Expert Lor­ry Climb­ing Stops Shell

Between a mass tres­pass in the morn­ing, some­one block­ing the road for 2 and ½ hours by climb­ing on top of a lor­ry, and a protest out­side Shel­l’s Bal­linaboy refin­ery, Thurs­day 11th August was a day full of block­ing Shell.

Thurs­day 11th August at 10:30am about 20 peo­ple entered the com­pound in Augh­oose which Shell is expand­ing in order to build the tun­nel for the onshore pipeline. The dig­gers which are lay­ing bog­mats and erect­ing fenc­ing retreat­ed into the cen­tre of the com­pound which is heav­i­ly guard­ed by IRMS, Shel­l’s pri­vate secu­ri­ty force. Work was slowed for an hour and a half while peo­ple were on the site.

At 11:30am some­one man­aged to climb on top of a lor­ry which was about to deliv­er fenc­ing and gird­ers to the com­pound. The halt­ed lor­ry blocked the road so they were not able to bring any­thing else into the com­pound. Shell esti­mat­ed they would be mak­ing 75 deliv­er­ies per day, today they man­aged about 10.

Just before 2pm the Gar­da pub­lic order unit showed up with their new toy, a cher­ryp­ick­er. Sergeant But­ler was dri­ving it, and three pub­lic order Gar­daí went up in the cage and pulled the per­son off of the steel gird­er he was sat on.

Once the road was cleared a few peo­ple went back down onto the com­pound and once again the dig­gers retreat­ed and stopped work­ing for about an hour.

To fin­ish up the day, a group of peo­ple cycled to Shel­l’s Bal­linaboy refin­ery for 6pm and stopped the last few trac­tors of the day from com­ing out, sim­ply by sit­ting out­side the gates and mak­ing tea. Then on the way home the cyclists delayed the IRMS shift change for almost an hour, until the Gar­daí arrived and the cyclists went home for din­ner.

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Cor­rib Gas protest at Augh­oose com­pound

At approx 6.40 am this morn­ing, Wednes­day 9th August, mem­bers of Ross­port Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp entered Shel­l’s pipe lay­ing com­pound at Augh­oose. Shell is attempt­ing to extend its exist­ing com­pound to facil­i­tate the arrival of its tun­nel bor­ing machine. A total of about 70 I‑RMS secu­ri­ty guards removed 10+ pro­test­ers from the com­pound with force. Gar­dai were stand­ing by to assist the I‑RMS, how­ev­er, they were faced with a dif­fi­cult legal predica­ment: which law could they use to restrain or arrest a pro­test­er? With­out the free reign of “pub­lic order” leg­is­la­tion, the Gar­dai could only reproach pro­test­ers if the pri­vate land own­er, Shell, request­ed it.

One pro­test­er was arrest­ed for refus­ing to give a name and address. Gar­dai are enti­tled to request a name and address only if the per­son in ques­tion is, with­in rea­son, sus­pect­ed of break­ing a law. In short, a gar­da must tell a per­son why he/she is request­ing a name and address. The gar­dai were hav­ing dif­fi­cul­ty locat­ing such a rea­son. It is unclear whether or not Shell asked the Gar­dai to inter­vene. With the neg­a­tive pub­lic rela­tions image Shell has acquired for itself in Ire­land due to the Cor­rib project, it is thought that Shell are reluc­tant take any court pro­ceed­ings against pro­test­ers.

The IRMS was polic­ing the entire road out­side the Augh­oose com­pound at var­i­ous points. This writer has per­son­al­ly seen I‑RMS secu­ri­ty guards unlaw­ful­ly act in a man­ner only war­rant­ed to police offi­cers of the state. Despite assur­ances by Super­in­ten­dent Pat Diskin who in an arti­cle writ­ten by Irish Times reporter, Lor­na Sig­gins, denied claims by Shell to Sea that the pri­vate secu­ri­ty com­pa­ny, I‑RMS, was clos­ing roads at Augh­oose. This morn­ing the I‑RMS did block the road unlaw­ful­ly. Ross­port sol­i­dar­i­ty camp mem­bers, as well as mem­bers of the Gar­dai, wit­nessed these actions. Gar­dai are legal­ly oblig­at­ed to main­tain the pub­lic order on all pub­lic high­ways at all times when­ev­er pos­si­ble. This morn­ing I‑RMS were exempt from the laws of the state.

Two pro­test­ers were assault­ed by I‑RMS secu­ri­ty guards, with one of the pro­test­ers being punched in the face. Com­plaints have been made to the Gar­dai and state­ments have been giv­en on the mat­ter. Mean­while, Ross­port Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp mem­bers stopped work this after­noon at Shrah­more peat depo­si­tion site from 4pm until 7pm. This is the sec­ond con­sec­u­tive day that work in Shrah­more has been halt­ed by pro­test­ers.

If you want to vis­it the camp there is plen­ty for every­one; join in the protests, or help in the gar­den, or help with site main­te­nance. The camp is locat­ed in a field in Augh­oose, between Bal­linaboy and Pul­lath­omas. Ring the camp at 0851141170 or email at rossportsolidaritycamp[at]gmail[dot]com

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Shel­l’s work at peat depot halt­ed

Work was halt­ed at Bord na Mon­a’s Shrah­more peat depo­si­tion site on Mon­day August 8th by pro­test­ers from Ross­port Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp. From 11am up until 6pm four pro­test­ers pre­vent­ed Bar­ret­t’s and Lennon’s quar­ry trucks from enter­ing the site with road build­ing grav­el. Inside the com­pound, two of the pro­test­ers climbed up onto a dig­ger in order to stop it pro­ceed­ing with the road con­struc­tion on the site.

Shell oil com­pa­ny is plan­ning to dig up 125,000 tonnes of peat from Shruwad­da­con estu­ary and lay down a high pres­sure raw gas pipeline. The local com­mu­ni­ty have not con­sent­ed to Shel­l’s oper­a­tions. The peat which Shell plans to dig up is sched­uled to be dumped at Shrah­more. How­ev­er, with­out the pres­ence of ade­quate road net­works with­in Shrah­more, the heavy peat dump­ing machin­ery can­not oper­ate. By halt­ing road build­ing works at Shrah­more from pro­ceed­ing, pro­test­ers are chal­leng­ing the social, envi­ron­men­tal and eco­nom­ic valid­i­ty of Shel­l’s activ­i­ties.

Mean­while, it has also been announced today that Shell, Sta­toil & Ver­mil­ion have now extend­ed their expect­ed date for when Cor­rib Gas will flow to 2014. Every year it seems that they push their expect­ed fin­ish date out fur­ther and fur­ther. Orig­i­nal­ly the fin­ish date was due to be 2003, so now the project would be 11 years delayed by Shel­l’s cur­rent guess: http://www.irishexaminer.com/business/corrib-pipeline‑w.…html