Workers Solidarity Movement

This afternoon, the Shell to Sea campaigner Maura Harrington ended her 10-day-old hunger strike after confirmation that the Solitaire had indeed left Irish waters. She read a statement to the press and the public outside the gates of Shell’s compound at Glengad in Erris, Co. Mayo, and then announced that her hunger strike had come to an end.

As you are all aware, events in Mayo have taken a turn for the worse in the last week. Several people have been arrested in their efforts to prevent Shell laying their pipeline and local school principal Maura Harrington has taken the decision to go on hunger-strike.

Shell to Sea activists and friends gathered at Daunt Sq. for a candle-lit vigil tonight to show their support publicly for Shell to Sea, and to show support for local anti-Shell activist Maura Harrington, whose hunger strike against the pipe-laying ship the Solitaire being in Irish waters continues.

Around thirty people took part in a protest at Shell HQ on Lesson street last night. Here are some photos and audio recording from the event.

On 8/8/08, The Department of Social and Family Affairs (DSFA) issued a press release entitled “€238 million saved in first six months of this year through Welfare anti fraud crackdown.” A closer look at the operations of the DSFA reveals a slightly different story however. According to the 2007 Social Welfare Appeals Office (SWAO) Annual Report, 46% of appeals to the SWAO were successful. The chief appeals officer, Brian Flynn, is critical of social welfare deciding officers “applying the ‘fraud’ applications of the legislation in all cases involving overpayments”.

This is an audio interview recorded by a phone with Cormac, a WSM member who is in Rossport. He reports on the latest developments in the campaign.

After a quiet period the struggle against Shell’s attempt to impose a dangerous experimental gas pipeline in Erris, Co. Mayo has escalated once more over the last month. 

Interview with Fergal who had just returned from a weekend trip to Rossport and who puts the events of the last week in the context of the struggle of the last years.

The Rossport Solidarity Camp was originally set up on ‘Rossport 5’ Philip McGrath’s land in 2005. In the Spring of 2006 the camp was set up again close to the beach at Glengad near the ‘landfall’ for Shell’s proposed pipeline. Following a mendacious but successful application by Mayo County Council for an order of eviction against the camp in September of 2007, the camp agreed to leave the dunes by January 1st 2008. Since then the 'camp' has organised from the Rossport Solidarity House in Pollathomas

A strong message has been sent to developers Quinn Property over the future of Seagrange Park, Baldoyle, following a public meeting held at Bayside community hall Tuesday July 15th.

Baldoyle and Bayside locals gathered at the community centre to discuss proposals made by developers Quinn Property, along with the Affordable Homes Partnership, to have the Brickfields site rezoned for the construction of a six-storey block of apartments.