This morning at 7.30 Dublin Shell to Sea members brought a taste of Mayo to Corrib House. Over 50 people took part in an ongoing blockade of the three entrances of the Shell HQ. The protest was peaceful with protesters linking arms and standing in front of the cars of employees as they attempted to enter the underground car park.

The first few managers got in as the protesters were perhaps caught out by a high level of Gardai aggression. Despite the warm morning several Gardai were observed pulling on heavy padded gloves, one lost it completely and was threatening to 'smash your face in' or 'sort you out afterwards' but most just confined themselves to trying to push the protesters out of the way of incoming cars.

Related Links: A report on the first week of the EPA oral hearing on the IPPC licence for the Corrib Gas refinery | Six arrests in Ballinaboy As 30 Enter Shell Site | Legalised Robbery - Multinationals and Ireland's Natural Resources | Why Occupy Corrib House?

Mairead Corrigan Maguire taken away after being shot with rubber bullets by Israeli soldiers.
from a photo series
by the ISM's Martinez

In a Gandhi-like protest, a completely unarmed and peaceful gathering of peace activists who were walking to the Bil'in Wall were tear-gassed and then shot with rubber bullets. After being brought to ambulances for treatment they returned to the non-violent demonstration. Among them was Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire.

Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire writes from Palestine...

'...When the walkers got half way down the road, the Israeli soldiers started firing nerve gas, and plastic bullets directly at us. At another point they used water cannons. We were a completely unarmed peaceful gathering and this vicious attack from the Israeli soldiers was totally unprovoked attack upon civilians. The soldiers block the upper part of the road, thus preventing Dr. Barghouti and some of the Palestinians joining the main vigillers. We were then tear gassed and as I helped a French woman retreat I was shot in the leg with a rubber bullet. Two young women, one from USA and one from New Zealand, helped me towards an ambulance. I saw an elderly Palestinian mother carried on a stretcher into the ambulance, as she was shot in the back with a plastic bullet. I saw a man whose face was covered in blood and a Palestinian youth overcome with the gas. About 20 people were injured. Ann and myself went back to the protest where the people were being viciously attacked with nerve gas and plastic bullets. I was overcome with gas and took a nose bleed which resulted in being carried to ambulance for treatment....'

Related Links: Peace People / Nobel Prize - 1976 / NobelWomensInitiative.org
PalSolidarity.org: All we had for breakfast was tear gas / on December 2006 she was Arrested at Faslane, Scotland

Willie Corduff with his wife Mary on his release from prison in September 2005

Mayo farmer Willie Corduff, who was jailed for three months in 2005 over his opposition to Shell's inland gas refinery at Bellanaboy and high-pressure pipeline through his farm, has been awarded the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize. Awarded annually to six grassroots environmental heroes, the $125,000 no-strings-attached prize is the largest of its kind in the world and is often referred to as the Nobel Prize for the environment.

Related Links: Goldman Environmental Prize | Shell to Sea | Report on last Wednesday's High Court ruling