Rossport Five: Dublin Demonstration

national | rights, freedoms and repression | news report

Tuesday July 05, 2005 12:02

by Shell To Sea - Shell To Sea

Wednesday July 6th, 7.30 Parnell Square

On Wednesday night, July 6th, a major demonstration will take place in Dublin to call for the release of the Rossport Five who have been imprisoned because of Shell.

The men, James Brendan Philbin, Phillip and Vincent McGrath, Willie Corduff and Micheal O Seighin, have been committed to prison indefinitely until they ‘purge their contempt’. The demonstration will assemble at 7.30 from Parnell Square. Speakers at the demonstration include: Gerry Cowley Independent TD for Mayo; a relative of one of the prisoners, Sister Majella McCarron, campaigner against Shell in Nigeria; Ola Badogun, Nigerian journalist and Maura Harrington, Shell to Sea.
Maura Harrington from Shell to Sea said,
‘It is a disgrace that five Irish citizens should be sent to prison at the behest of a giant multi-national. More than a hundred years ago, Mayo farmers had to resist landlordism but today we face a new form of corporate landlordism. Shell is endangering the safety of the people of Erris and destroying the natural environment to further its profits. At the Bord Pleanala hearings it was admitted that by processing the gas inshore, the company will save €360 million in capital costs and reduce its operating costs by 40 percent a year.[i] By processing the gas offshore, it could reduce the risks to the environment and the people of the area.
‘The imprisonment of the five men has highlighted to the Irish people as a whole the scale of the robbery of our natural resources. There is no benefit to the Irish people from extraction of gas of our coast as we still have to pay for the gas at commercial prices. The corporation tax rate on oil and gas production is only 25 percent which is the lowest in the world and the companies pay no royalties. The companies are also allowed to write off all costs going back for 25 years. In addition, Bord Gais is building a special pipeline to connect the Corrib field to the national grid for €200 million.
The five men should be immediately released and the Irish public should demand that their government reverses its policy of giving away our natural resources.
Issued by: Shell to Sea
For more details phone Maura Harrington 087 9591474 or 09786781

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Comments (5 of 5)

Police v Locals

by im a local cos i say so

Tue Jul 05, 2005 16:21

the main clip shown on RTE news last night acompaning there update on this stroy was showing a Gardai Sargeant asking locals to remain in charge of the protest...

one must respect locals as always but nobody is excluded from protesting against the unjust.

the sweat & work of 5 years

by mary belmullet

Tue Jul 05, 2005 14:08

Well done to you Maura & to others- that summary was outlined clearly and it should be said that information, is of course the product of over 5 years of hard work, sweat, committment, anguish, dogged determination & guided by an unselfish love of North Mayo and its people by you and by a core group of others.
North Mayo and Ireland owes a huge debt of gratitude to you and others.

You have given up a huge part of your lives to devote to Justice, fair play for the people of North Mayo and indeed Ireland as regards the Gas Project.

It is sad that such extreme efforts must be made by ordinary decent people on a voluntary capacity in order to get our publicly elected Govt, local authority, state agencies to act in the peoples best interest. Which sadly has never been done in this case- see the facts for yourself!

I think our Govt is leading Ireland down the wrong road entirely- the easy option is very often not the right one.

Hip Hip Hooray for the Honourable people as you Maura, the Rossport 5, and many others- I still have faith thanks to you.

Letter to Irish Times (not published)

by Justin Morahan - Peace People (individual)

Tue Jul 05, 2005 13:48

"Madam

Adding insult to injury, Shell E&P Ireland condescends to have "constructive dialogue" with the five Mayo residents whom they have got committed to prison. In the same breath they accuse the five of "having a wider agenda". (IT 2 July 2005). Backed by the Irish State, they must feel that they are in a particularly powerful position as they try to dictate terms to Brendan Philbin, Willie Corduff, James McGrath, Vincent McGrath, and Mícheál Ó Seighin. They know that these honourable men ar now in a position of weakness, but when they wanted to speak to Shell as free men, Shell's Dublin doors were slammed firmly shut against them.

Shell (and by implication its lesser partners Statoil and Marathon Oil) now plan to disregard the public outcry and press ahead with their money-making plans in Mayo regardless.

The arrogance of their position is matched only by the insolent certitude with which they have acted from the beginning of this saga. They knew the right time, the right people and the minimum necessary steps to take along the way: So, free exploration rights were obtained from then Minister Ray Burke, a Quantified Risk Assessment, largely composed by Shell-related "independent" assessors, was enough to befuddle Mayo County Council and Bord Pleanála; they obtained Compulsory Acquisition Orders after prolonged battles with the authorities; they got away with a return to the State of an insulting 25% of future profits and the carrot-and-stick approach to local landowners and residents was only a small hurdle they had to clear to secure a fait accompli.

When the sons and daughters of Michael Davitt's Land League said No to the bullying tactics, Shell had to run for the shelter of the umbrella of Irish law, willingly opened for them by the Irish State.

The so-called "rights" of the bullying multi-national company are now being upheld by Irish courts while the real rights of landowners are declared null and void and the landowners themselves and their supporters are thrown into Irish prisons.
It is not the decent people of Rossport who have a "wider agenda" but the brazen multi-national companies who demand the use of their lands for their own self interest.

Who can stop Shell now? Who can force them to re-negotiate the deal, to push their refinery off the land. Who can prevent them from claiming the assets of their victims, and their children. Who can forbid them from making guinea pigs of Rossport people by continuing with their unprecedented, dangerous experiment of laying high-pressure crude oil pipes and electricity cables across reclaimed bogland? Only the people of Ireland can now shout Stop.
Justin Morahan
71 Scholarstown Park
Dublin 16"