Rossport: Tripod action at Glengad — Work halted at Shell’s illegal compound — update

May 14th 2009
Cam­paign­ers using a dar­ing “tri­pod” tech­nique have halt­ed the ille­gal work being under­tak­en by Shell at the Cor­rib Gas land­fall site at Glen­gad in Co Mayo.

Shell con­trac­tors were due this morn­ing to extend the con­struc­tion com­pound down onto the pub­lic beach at Glen­gad. How­ev­er, ear­ly bird Shell to Sea cam­paign­ers blocked access to the beach at 5 am by erect­ing two spe­cial­ly-designed tripods, each 20 feet in height. Two men attached them­selves to the top of the tripods using climb­ing equip­ment and as of lunchtime are still sus­pend­ed from the tripods.

The men, who live local­ly, are both in good form and a par­ty atmos­phere is evi­dent on the shore­line below them. Gar­daí and Shell secu­ri­ty have not attempt­ed to remove them so far, as to do so would put the two men’s safe­ty at risk.

Giant tripods of this nature have been deployed by cam­paign­ers around the world as a form of direct action. This is the first time tripods have been used in Ire­land for this pur­pose.

The com­pound has been erect­ed ille­gal­ly with­out plan­ning per­mis­sion to facil­i­tate works along the shore­line, which them­selves have yet to receive full legal con­sent. It is present­ly the sub­ject of legal pro­ceed­ings tak­en by An Taisce against Mayo Coun­ty Coun­cil, which has facil­i­tat­ed Shel­l’s ille­gal­i­ty at every point along the way.

Shell to Sea spokesper­son Mau­ra Har­ring­ton said: “Yet again, Shell is dis­re­gard­ing both the law and the will of the local com­mu­ni­ty by try­ing to extend their ille­gal com­pound onto the pub­lic beach. Today’s action shows that we are as deter­mined as ever to obstruct this obscene project, and the give­away of Irish nat­ur­al resources.”

As of 13.30, the new Gar­da Inspec­tor in Bel­mul­let, Joe Doher­ty, has direct­ed the two activists to come down for their own safe­ty under Sec­tion 8.1 of the Pub­lic Order Act. One of those sus­pend­ed has asked Doher­ty to apol­o­gise for punch­ing him in the stom­ach dur­ing the action last Sat­ur­day evening at the com­pound. For the time being at any rate, the Gar­daí and Shell secu­ri­ty have been out-manoeu­vred.

——

May 15th:

The two peo­ple on the tri­pod came down of their own accord at 5:30 yes­ter­day evening after 12 hours up on the tripods. At this stage all site work­ers exclud­ing secu­ri­ty had left the com­pound for the day. The two climbers then left the area along with sup­port­ers car­ry­ing their tripods unac­cost­ed by the watch­ing Gar­daí. The beach was patrolled by Gar­daí and Secu­ri­ty work­ing side by side for the rest of the night.

At 3:30 this morn­ing under the cov­er of dark­ness Shell stripped the cliff and broke out onto the beach. They now have an enclosed com­pound as far as where the tripods extend­ed yes­ter­day.

Shell may have suc­ceed­ed in break­ing onto the beach but over­all the com­mu­ni­ty spir­it is upbeat and momen­tum seems to be build­ing. This real­ly is the time to come and stand with the com­mu­ni­ty