Tag Archives: Rossport

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Rory Walsh, of Spire Productions, writes:

“You might be interested in this, especially with the Bellanaboy gas terminal just going into operation. We just had a short documentary broadcast on Telesur English (which is kind of the South American version of Al Jazeera English).”

“It focuses on the release of a compliation album Songs Of Solidarity which includes music written about and relating to the Rossport campaign whilst also giving a bit of background on the history of the campaign from some of the individuals involved (as much as was possible in a 13-minute documentary!). It was directed by myself and produced by Eamon de Staic.”

Previously: Meanwhile, In Mayo

Shelling Out Sweeteners

poster-for-site

Free tomorrow?

An exhibition of photography and oral testimony of the local response to the Corrib gas dispute at Comhlamh, 12 Parliament Street, Dublin at 7pm tomorrow night.

Reddy writes:

Given how the communities all over the country are facing a Rossport-isation of policing with the water protests, this is one to highlight and attend. . Eye opening.

Rossport Residents Reflect On Resistance To The Corrib Project (Comlámh)

Rossport Residents Reflect On Resistance (Rashers Tierney, Rabble.ie)

Shell

Video footage taken last Saturday of ‘bubbling puddles’ in Sruwaddacon estuary near Rossport in Co. Mayo.

Erris Camera writes:

“Strange depressions and bubbling puddles appear in Sruwaddacon tidal estuary, where Shell are tunnelling. It seems that air or gas is emerging from sand above the place where the boring machine is at work, indicating that water may be leaking in to the tunnel…”

Anyone?

An editorial in The Western People

Ten years ago this summer An Bord Pleanála issued a preliminary judgement on the Corrib gas project.  In a letter to the then developers, Enterprise Energy Ireland (later Shell E&P Ireland), the planning appeals board claimed that the proposed terminal at Ballinaboy in North Mayo might be prejudicial to the health and safety of local residents and urged the applicant to investigate alternative locations.  Among the possible sites mooted was the then vacant Asahi plant on the outskirts of Killala.

A few weeks after receiving the letter from An Bord Pleanála, Shell E&P Ireland engaged in excavation work at Glengad Beach, the proposed site  of the pipeline landfall.  Later that summer, this newspaper published remarks from Fianna Fáil Junior Minister Frank Fahey who claimed that a failure to grant planning permission for the Ballinaboy terminal would be “a most detrimental blow to the economic development of the north-west and Co Mayo in particular”.

A year earlier, Fahey, in his capacity as Minister for Marine and Natural Resources, had contacted Mayo Co Council to insist he be informed of the local authority’s decision on the Corrib project before it was made public.  Many people perceived the minister as exercising undue influence on a planning process that was supposed to be independent.

James Laffey,
Editor,
Western People

Hmm.

Via Shell To Sea

(Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland)

From The Rossport Solidarity Camp:

This morning at about 4am hundreds of Gardaí and Shell private security (IRMS) mobilised to Glenamoy crossroads where sections of Shell’s tunnel boring machine has been stuck on a jack-knifed lorry for the last number of days.

Since then convoys of lorries have been hauling stone from a stock pile inside the refinery to the site, dumping it into the field below the cab of the jack- knifed lorry. It is thought that they need better foundations than the bog road and fields in order to use a crane big enough to lift the weight of the lorry and the TBM.

Since this morning the area is under police occupation on a scale similar to that during the Solitaire pipelaying operation in 2008 and 2009.

With no warning or notices the North coast road between Glenamoy and Ballinaboy has been closed, there are Gardaí posted every 50 metres along this new haulage route and freedom of movement has been seriously curtailed. Anyone who wishes to come down to document the occupation and harassment of the community would be most welcome.

Glenamoy locals have noticed the road subsiding under all the weight – this will become worse if they get a crane in there. The desperation of behalf of Shell and the Gardaí mirrors what is at stake – the Corrib project is literally at a crossroads and could be slipping into the bog that Shell have been fighting against for all these years.

The camp is open and if you ever thought about coming up here then now is the time. The resistance over the last few days has been inspiring – starting with the protest presence Dublin port, the tracking across country and the protests and blockades in Mayo. Would the convoy drivers have decided to head down a bog road to turn for a better angle on the last corner if there had been no pressure?

Besides protest actions to stop the delivery of the TBM to the tunneling site (if they manage to move it at all) there is all the other work needed to keep the show on the road (and the TBM stuck on it) – housekeeping, reporting, media work, tea, food, transport and lots more.

If you can’t come please spread the word, and we’ll try keep you up to date as things happen.

All the best
Everyone at the Rossport Solidarity Camp

Thanks Mark Malone

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NSFNaKh4e8

Bas Ó Curraoin, of éírígí, writes:

This is footage of Shell’s Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) leaving Dublin Port as it began its 320km journey to Rossport in North West Mayo on Sunday night.

The private energy company intends to use the TBM to bore a tunnel for a highly controversial gas pipeline which will link the Corrib Gas Field to the company’s gas refinery at Ballinaboy.

The video shows part of the massive Garda operation that has been put in place to assist Shell transport the TBM to Mayo. Such use of Garda resources has become commonplace over the last seven years as the state has spend tens of millions of euros facilitating Shell’s exploitation of the Corrib Gas Field.

The Corrib Gas Field is believed to contain tens of billions of euros worth of natural gas.

The deal which saw Shell gain ownership of Corrib was based upon a legal framework developed by politicians including Ray Burke and Bertie Ahern.

Under that deal the people of Ireland will receive virtually no return from the Corrib
Gas, but will instead have to buy back their own gas from Shell at the full market rate.

We are calling for the immediate nationalisation of the Corrib Gas Field, the Barryroe Oil Field and all other Irish hydrocarbon resources.