Update from Rossport Solidarity Camp

10th July 09
Ross­port Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp remains strong at Glen­gad with peo­ple tak­ing action and plan­ning for ongo­ing resis­tance to Shel­l’s gas pipeline in Erris, both off­shore and onshore.

Rossport Solidarity Camp10th July 09
Ross­port Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp remains strong at Glen­gad with peo­ple tak­ing action and plan­ning for ongo­ing resis­tance to Shel­l’s gas pipeline in Erris, both off­shore and onshore.

A recent nation­al meet­ing of Shell to Sea groups at the camp last week­end saw peo­ple moti­vat­ed to con­tin­ue with the fight. The camp on the clifftops at Glen­gad will con­tin­ue over the com­ing months and, despite heavy-hand­ed bail con­di­tions which have banned peo­ple from Mayo, a steady stream of vis­i­tors to the camp keeps spir­its high.

The focal point of the camp for a long time has been the arrival of the pipe-lay­ing ship the Soli­taire. The ship is now far out into the bay lay­ing pipeline on its way to the well-head. The navy have also left the bay, still leav­ing a heavy secu­ri­ty pres­ence guard­ing the dredgers as they back-fill over the pipe. The most recent action has focused on the sup­ply ships which go out reg­u­lar­ly from Kil­l­libegs in Done­gal, to sup­port the Soli­taire and the well head con­struc­tion.

Atten­tion is now also turn­ing to the onshore sec­tion of the pipeline which would run from Broad­haven bay for 9km to the refin­ery under con­struc­tion at Bel­len­aboy. Shell have yet to be grant­ed plan­ning per­mis­sion, although a deci­sion is expect­ed soon. Grant­i­ng per­mis­sion would open the way for drilling and con­struc­tion work across pris­tine riv­er estu­ary, peat bog­land and heav­i­ly con­test­ed farm­land and com­mon­age.

This remains a very impor­tant time to come to the camp to take action against the build­ing of the pipeline at all stages. There are many and var­ied ways to make a sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tion. Sup­port is invalu­able to sus­tain the sol­i­dar­i­ty camp, which has been a tar­get for legal repres­sion, and the local com­mu­ni­ty who have also recent­ly faced trau­mat­ic acts of vio­lence.

Whether it is for a few days or a few weeks this sum­mer come and be in this beau­ti­ful place and join the sol­i­dar­i­ty camp in a fight against cor­po­rate greed, the arro­gance of the state, and envi­ron­men­tal and com­mu­ni­ty dev­as­ta­tion.