Rossport Five : 74 days in jail now and no end in sight, ' Who breaks a butterfly on a wheel?'

by Tommy Donnellan - Shell to Sea Sat Sep 10, 2005 23:27

more !.

Colm, a primo activist with Sinn Fein.

Green Party, Galway City Councillor, Neill O'Brolchain behind Dotie Knaur.

Son making sure his dad does his duty !.

Sheet !, I should have bought The Socialist to found out the source of the bemusement, Shane, please enlighten?.

by Tommy Donnellan - Shell to Sea Sat Sep 10, 2005 23:38

with photo overload ?.

Barbara !

Roisin and friends.

Dottie & Kieran.

Outside the Westside Shell Service Station last Thursday evening.

Sweet young lads !.

by Jim Phatch Sun Sep 11, 2005 13:57

The protestors in Galway are great.

Is there a sHell office or yard nearby they could picket?

And we will win today.

by Tommy Donnellan - Shell to Sea Sun Sep 11, 2005 22:15

a number of times and will continue to do so, ad infinitum/nauseam until Shell and our government are brought to heel on this issue.

by momento de la verdad - Shell to Sea Mon Sep 12, 2005 01:11

nemesis is never far behind !

On fire, with barrels of Ogoni blood, as millstones, around its neck, Shell will fall, screaming, when the wretched of the earth bleed enough tears of despair on Erris's, evergreen, violated, endless, Dies Irae, shores of anger.

by mary reilly Tue Sep 20, 2005 15:01 maryr at iol dot ie 097-209677

I am an Erris native, now many of you may ponder and wonder where is Erris well its an unspoilt area of natural beauty situated in the north west of Mayo which boasts the village of Rossport. Now how many of you protestors even know where Rossport is or have even spent a night there...not to many i imagine. The Rossport five are the only ones who can help themselves they basically are holding the keys to thier cells, Shell cannot lift the injunction as it is not merely placed on these five men but infact polaced on everyone by Shell to prevent distruption to thier work and infact to protect thier workers which is only right.Now I am calling on the Rossport five to purge thier contempt as this is the only way forward. Ye have made your point. Ye are now tearing apart our community come out and end this sorry saga.May I also put to these "protestors" my feelings about their unnecessary pickets placed at fuel stations...may ask what their motor cars run on, fresh air perhaps?! The owners of these stations have done nothing wrong they are individual business people selling a particular franchise. Put it like this if we were to learn tomorrow that for example a particular product in a shop contained chemicals that it shouldn't should we go and picket every shop in every village, I think not the same as we shouldn't picket these Shell and Statoil stations. When the owners of such stations decided to trade under the names Shell or Statoil they werent to know what lay ahead for them. These stations are indepentent stations in many cases family businesses. I would like to conclude by again asking for the release of the Rossport five, by themselves as they are the only ones with the power to do so and also please dont just jump on the band wagon protestors thinking ye know all the facts.
Mary

by Erris native Wed Sep 21, 2005 14:52

Mary, I think like many other people who are victims of spin, lack of insight and understanding or empathy, or who have an agenda, that you are forgetting who the agents are in this saga. The 5 men were put in jail - if you knew your grammar you'd know that that's the passive voice and that the 5 are not the people who initiated the action. They did not ask to go to jail to make a point. Shell asked the court to put them in jail. The injunction can be applied to everyone as you said in your posting, but Shell are not applying it to everyone, and one would need to question why that is? Why did they not jail the female landowner who had defied the injunction? We know why - it is on the public record that the Shell PR people thought it would look bad to jail a woman. That's the dirty level they're playing at. Why will they not lift the injunction?

The men are bound by the injunction if they purge their contempt and they have been jailed for it. If they violated it again, who knows what the penalties would be for them. Are you also aware that the court granted costs to Shell the day they were jailed?Apologising to the court is not a problem for the 5. I find it offensive that you would say that they are tearing apart our community. It is the government who have allowed this to happen. Everyone is totally upset. Those who are pro-project (no matter what the environmental or social impact on those who live in close proximity to the pipeline), and those who are against the project in its current design are equally upset by this. The community should not allow itself to be damaged in this way by the government and by money interests. Are you not concerned about the safety of your neighbours at all? Do you not think it's wrong for their land to be taken off them and given to SEPIL? Do you not think it's wrong for their small fields to be divided in two, for this pipeline to go under the roads from their houses? Have you no empathy at all? It's quite obvious that your life will not be torn apart if this pipeline goes through Rossport. You will not be affected directly. I envy you your luxurious position whereby you can post in such a reckless fashion without having to consider the damage and hurt you might cause.