Major Demonstration for Rossport Five in Dublin.

by Aidan Wed Jul 20, 2005 12:30

I'm finding it difficult to get hard info on the Saturday 23rd protest. The Shell to Sea website has a slightly non-commital message on http://www.corribsos.com/index.php?id=40&type=event

and this good message here was hard enopugh to find on indymedia. Not a complaint just a suggestion, raise the profile on the websites - big messages the minute you log on. I only heard about it on NEAR FM yesterday and took me quite a few minutes online to get to here. I take it from the lack of comments that I may not be the only one.

by Mystified Wed Jul 20, 2005 12:37

Bit odd that the call out is coming from the IAWM

by Shell To Sea - Shell To Sea Wed Jul 20, 2005 21:58

Shell to Sea Demo Saturday 23 July
At 2pm Parnell Square
The campaign in Mayo have called for a mass demonstration on the streets of Dublin this Saturday 23rd July assembling 2pm Parnell Square.
Shell To Sea Protest This Saturday At 2pm Parnell Square
Shell to Sea campaign Contact Maura Harrington 087 9591474

by Terry Sun Jul 24, 2005 02:21

The demonstration in support of the Rossport 5, who were jailed by the State at the behest of the Shell and Statoil Corporations, took place today from Parnell Square. There were approximately 1000 people there with this swelling to perhaps 2000 later on. Before the march took place there were a number of speeches by the families of those jailed.

The march got going around about 3ish and went down O'Connell street lead by the traffic corp of the Garda. There was a good range of placards and banners with lots of colour and this in many ways indicated the diversity of the crowd, from young to old and from farmers to city folk. This is clearly an issue that has struck a chord with people and they are rightly so disgusted.

What was even more interesting, was that I noticed a lot of people joining the march along the route and they weren't just people accidently drifting into the crowd either. They were quite intentional. Also many bystanders along the way showed their support often by clapping and in other cases through words of encouragement.

The march then proceeded around by Dolier St, and then back around over O'Connell street again, to the GPO where a number of speeches were then given. The most interesting speech however was by some person, who may have been an oil worker back in the 1970s, or at least was quoting from them, that in fact back then there were significant finds of oil and gas found in Irish waters during the burst of exploration that took place back then.
This was all covered up and the oil companies reported to the government at the time that in fact all the wells were dry. But at the time and this was confirmed today in the speech, there were widespread reports that oil had been found and what happened was that Irish workers were then barred from rig activity based around the drilling and put onto other jobs like painting for example.

Clearly it was the intention of the oil companies to tell the government of the day and those into the future that since there was no oil, they figured it would be much easier to get better concessions. They need not have worried as courtsey of a string of Irish politicians including such well known names as Bobby Molloy and Ray Burke, the original condition of 50% tax was removed and royalities reduced to almost nothing. In addition other politicians got the law changed in such a way as to remove many of our democractic rights and make it far easier for the oil companies to instruct the government to lock up Irish people.

There is one slight puzzle with this oil theory and that is; we all know companies tend not to sit on their assets but prefer to realize them as soon as they can. However back in the 1970s and early 1980s, the technology for deeper waters such as the Atlantic were still in development and it is probable that while the fields off the Irish coast are large, they weren't quite large enough versus the cost of extraction, to be worthwhile at that time. The top executives of the oil companies, probably figured it was better to wait longer until the technology of extraction was better and brought costs down, thereby bringing profits up, they would have also needed more time to work on the politicians because initially the deal setup by Justin Keating was that they would have had to pay 50% tax on the oil. But they did as we know get to work on that little annoyance. But most importantly the oil comapany executives would have been aware that at some time in the future, Peak Oil, would occur and prices would rise and these fields would become very profitable. And practically all sensible predictions of Peak Oil by geologists largely range from this year to 2010.

If we accept this and it is certainly very plausible and events support it, then everything makes more sense now and what's more, the refinery they are trying to build in Rossport, will be used for these other reserves later on. And of course the Irish people will get absolutely nothing from it. In fact they will get more than nothing, they will get a polluted coastal region and land as oil refineries are a very dirty business.

The Crowd at Parnell Square

Getting ready to set off from Parnell Square

Heading back towards O'Connell bridge

To Hell with Shell

View from behind the speaker platform at the GPO

by ceist Sun Jul 24, 2005 04:16

Why are faces blurred or blanked out in some of the photos?

by groucho Sun Jul 24, 2005 04:33

doing sound today?

one of them was even using the microphone to tap on so as to clap?!

He was banging the microphone while the person was starting their next point

by Terry Sun Jul 24, 2005 18:48

In reply to: 'Why are faces blurred or blanked out in some of the photos?' -because I didn't ask for their permission to take their pictures. So I will presume otherwise that those most clearly identified do not neccessarily want their faces shown up close unless they specify otherwise.

Apparently at the first public meeting down in Rossport all the local residents going in were recorded on a digital camera up close by someone acting on behalf of Shell who recorded the whole meeting too. The locals were rightly disgusted and demanded a copy of the film, but not before Shell demanded that each person had to give their name and address to the local Gardai, which apparently they did.

Perhaps someone else has more concrete information on this.

So now you see why I don't want to make the job any easier for Shell and Statoil and their puppets in the state apparatus.

Oh and by the way, there was someone at the protest at the GPO who was very busy taking photographs of individuals in the crowd, using a really large zoom lens. as shown in the photo attached here.

Large zoom lens used to photograph people in the crowd