Workers Solidarity Movement

This week as it was revealed in the Irish Times that 20 months after entering into a legal agreement with local fishermen Shell has still not submitted an application as required to the Environmental Protection Agency to review the emissions licence for the experimental gas pipeline it is imposing on the people of Erris. Yet this week 27 Shell to Sea campaigners are being prosecuted on behalf of Shell in the local courts and today one of them received three five month sentences.
Pic: Many of the 27 at a previous court appearance, in the front row Niall is far right, Pat is in the middle and Maura is on the far left

A motorised convoy of 99 cars took part in a rally yesterday in support of Pat O'Donnell. The rally went from Mr O'Donnell's homeplace at Porturlin, traveled through much of Erris, and finished at Ballyglass Pier fishing port. Mr O'Donnell was sent to Castlerea prison recently for seven months for his opposition to Shell and protecting his community.

In order to break the resistance of the inhabitants of Erris to the Shell experimental gas pipeline dozens of people are now being prosecuted. Belmullet District Court is in the second day of a special 3 day session to carry out Shell's prosecutions. But things are not going Shell's way, of the 16 people being prosecuted in yesterdays session only one prosecution resulted in a fine.

Retired school principal Maura Harrington has been jailed for the fourth time this year in connection with her opposition to Shell’s experimental inland refinery and high-pressure pipeline in north Mayo.

Shot this on Saturday morning, someone from the Rossport Solidarity Camp narrates the various components of the Shell armada in the bay and what they have been used for

Venue: Lissadell Suite, Sligo City Hotel
Time: 3pm
Date: 11/07/09

I arrived in occupied Erris on Friday evening having travelled down to take part in a national meeting of Shell to Sea groups. It had been a busy week for the campaign as the state had reacted to the ongoing resistance to Shell in Erris by seizing fishing boats, sending 7 people to jail without trial and banning two more from Co. Mayo. Not only had hundreds of state forces including the police, navy, air force and possibly the army been deployed to suppress protest in Erris but those of us doing solidarity work elsewhere had found from time to time that we were being followed by the secret police.

This is a 10 minute interview with Fin conducted as a lock on was in progress on the road blocking a Shell convoy.

This is an 8 minute audio interview with Fin who arrived at the Rossport Solidarity camp in June 2009 as Shell's ship the Soliaire started lying pipe. It's about getting there, what is going on, the events of this morning, the level of policing and what is to come.

Warships and other Irish navy vessels today escorted the world's largest pipe-laying ship, the Solitaire, into Broadhaven Bay in north Mayo, where it will attempt to lay part of the offshore section of the Corrib Gas pipeline. The community around Shell's operations is now besieged and intimidated by hundreds of Gardaí, Shell security and naval vessels, all in the cause of giving away Irish gas to multinational companies.