The main article on Shell to Sea this weekend was a repeat of Paul Williams earlier story in the Sunday World last weekend. These stories concerned Provo intimidation. This is likely to be a recurring theme so it is examined in detail in this article. Shell to Sea was also smeared by the Sunday Times (again) and Saturday’s Mail. The Mail gave positive coverage earlier in the week. There were decent pieces in the Irish Times and in Village. This article just looks at the negative coverage.

Sunday World

Paul Williams, employee of Tony O’Reilly (owner of an oil and gas exploration company), starts off with allegations from an unnamed group and unnamed spokesperson of people “directly affected by the Corrib gas pipeline controversy” alleging “widespread intimidation” by Shell to Sea thugs.

It is not known if people “directly affected” include the owner, along with Exxon-Mobil, of oil and gas fields off the coast of Clare, aka Tony O’Reilly. There is no named person citing direct experience of intimidation with names, dates, and places, thus it is utterly meaningless. No charges have been brought although the first story alleging this, was, to my knowledge, in July 2005. The intimidation is linked to Sinn Fein and republicans.

Related Stories of Media Manipulation: Anonymous smear campaign aimed at undermining the right to protest | The Empire Strike Back! - White House & Indo Sic on to the Acquitted Ploughshares | What Is The Sindo and The Rest of O'Reilly's Empire Doing?

In January of this year we were part of an eight-country Global Women’s Strike delegation to Venezuela from co-ordinating groups in England, Guyana, India, Ireland, Peru, Spain, Uganda, and US – over 70 women and men. Working with the Bolivarian revolution since 2002, our global network took advantage of Caracas hosting the World Social Forum to work together in the heart of the revolution. We wanted as many of us as possible to witness how grassroots communities, beginning with women, are spearheading a revolution and winning back their oil wealth, through an extraordinary relationship with their elected President Hugo Chávez Frías.

For decades successive ‘democratic’ governments helped the US-backed mainly white elite collaborate with multi-national corporations to steal that wealth, while the Indigenous, Black and mixed race majority lived in poverty.

President Chávez has said ‘to end poverty we must give power to the poor.’ Social programmes (called missions), based on grassroots self-activity which bypasses corrupt state institutions, are funded by Venezuela’s oil revenue. This revenue is being made available to those with least throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Even in the US, CITGO, Venezuela’s oil company there is providing heating oil to low-income communities, such as the victims of Katrina, at a 40% discount. On his visit to Europe in May, President Chávez offered the same to those of us who are poor here.

After the Cyprus mauling the fans called for the sacking of Steve Staunton. The FAI got rid of Brian Kerr while Mick McCarty ran under the pressure of his failings. So is it time we forgot about blaming those the FAI appointed as international soccer managers and look towards the FAI as the continuing reasons for the decline in our interantion football team and the long departed good old days of glory?

The appointment by the FAI of Steve Staunton as manager of the Republic of Ireland international football team has once again demonstrated the capability of those who walk the corridors of Merrion Square to professionally handle the responsibilities necessary for an international football team to progress on the international or world stage.

Let us be openly straight and honest about this current situation, the FAI are about as capable of directing the interests of Irish international football as Eamonn Dunphy is of keeping quiet and that is by no means of any disrespect to Eamonn Dunphy. Time and time again the FAI have made one debacle after another, as one crisis runs immediately into another and Irish soccer, be it at a national or international level, is once again placed under the microscope and seen for what it really is.

Other links: A Clear Case of Off-Side | Red card to racism shown at Tolka Park | Roy Keane was right to speak out | Sam Maguire - Irelands most famous Protestant | Ireland v Israel | Israel v Zimbabwe | Opening up Croke Park | Will Handball Ever "Take" in Cooley? | Who Stole the Soul of Manchester United?

“I’m happy with the way the Gardaí have conducted themselves”. Garda Press Officer, Supt. Ray McHugh at Bellanaboy.

In the wake of Tuesday’s dramatic events outside the gates of Shell’s proposed refinery site at Bellanaboy, campaigners were out in force Wednesday and Thursday undeterred by the heavy police presence and inclement weather. For the last two days over 200 local residents and Shell to Sea activists gathered in the semi darkness of the early mornings to voice their opposition to the Corrib gas project and to underline the fact that although work has temporarily recommenced on site, Shell to Sea resistance to this project will continue. In the face of deliberate attempts by Gardaí to opportunistically provoke and inflame the tempers of the protestors at this sensitive time, the nature of the last few days’ protests has been consciously peaceful, as usual, in an effort to diffuse the tension imported by An Garda Síochána.

The effective occupation of the Bellanaboy area by police since Tuesday morning continues. Hundreds of Gardaí who have been drafted into the small community to facilitate Shell’s work remain in the area and have maintained a strong presence outside the proposed refinery site since then. In the same way that Nigeria’s “oil police” violently suppress dissent to Shell’s corporate rape, the Gardaí are effectively Shell’s state provided private army protecting the global giant from the community which it is attempting to destroy. Public roads have been blocked and Garda checkpoints erected. Wednesday morning’s protest witnessed a heavy police presence with luminous coated Gardaí lining the roadside. This morning police presence was more low-key with Gardaí waiting on standby in buses.

At this point in time it is a rare and welcome event when a book by an Irish activist is published and rarer still when a book by an Irish anti-capitalist writer receives widespread praise and acclaim. Clandestines: the Pirate journals of an Irish Exile, which has received a slew of positive reviews following it’s publication in the US by AK Press, is just such a rarity, and as it is being launched in Ireland this week means readers here will soon be able to make their own appraisal of the book.

Although this is Ryan's first full length book many Indymedia readers may have already come across Ryan’s articles and essays before as the author is relatively well known and his work is included in probably two of the most notable collections of anti-capitalist writing of recent years- the Verso Press’ ‘We are Everywhere’ and Softskull Press’ ‘Confronting Capitalism.

Links to some more of Ramor's Writings: We Are Everywhere | Confronting Capitalism | Days of Horror Nights Of War | More online pieces