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Shell To Sea again
Indymedia is all alight with people cheering on the efforts of protesters who stormed the refinery (one commenter has likened it to 1916 which of course like this was a peaceful protest). With news that a person has be arrested for assaulting a Garda. I have talked in favour of the governments policy before thus I wouldn’t repeat myself and I haven’t read any thing that made me wish to change my mind on it. The protest started about the rights of the local people not to have pipelines going across land hence Shell to Sea. i.e the problem was not shell but the fact that they were on land. Now reading Indymedia it is all about the evil corporation. This has very little any more to do with the position of the pipeline.
I wonder how many of the 150 protesters (upper estimate but we’ll give them that as it’s still miserable considering they put weeks of publicity into today’s protest) actually live in the Rossport area.
This issue is fast becoming an opportunity for a few thugs and eco activists to physically attack the Gardai. It’s time to throw a few of these professional protesters in jail or require that they sign on at their local Garda station at the time of a protest just like Soccer Hooligans have to..
I agree with JohnMac. The majority of local people want the onshore refinery as it’ll create much needed employment for the area suffering from the lowest levels of job creation in Ireland. There is serious intimidation in the area from vested interests who own lands that would eventually be traversed by the pipeline.
On RTE news today some of the protestors were English - further proving the ‘Glen of the Downes’ effect where these crushtys come out of the woodwork and feed of the seething hatred of progression.
It’s disgusting. Fair play to the cops. They should take all the cameras and recording equipment away and have an open baton charge to sort things out. I’d nearly sign up to the Garda Reserve to get in on the act!!!
diarmy
Getting 200+ people to Ballyinaboy at 7am is no mean feat as it is at the very edge of Mayo and very beautiful by the way, for those of you to whom it just represents a name rather than a community of anxious people.
The fact that the campaign is now being spearheaded by young activists and libertarians does not in any way take away from the legitimacy of the struggle. Most other supporters are either too scared by the massed ranks of our nation’s finest and their behaviour at the Feburary ‘day of action’ when they batton-charged peaceful protesters and/or too put off by the time commitment and distance involved.
As for the racist fool above (diareay) perhaps he should consider that over 20 million UK citizens are first and seconmd generation Irish. The see the destruction wrought by the privledgeing of sectoral interests and profit-driven development in this republic of ours. I think you should join the Garda reserve by the way, you appear to me to have the exact personality traits necessary - narrow-minded, basically a bully, intolerent, and a bit on the thick side.
Lets face the truth - Ray Burke signed away our reserves for a pittance; Shell are a discraced multinational involved in numerous human-rights and enviromantal crimes; our police force is supressing local opposition and providing security for a commercial enterprise; the gas could be preocessed at sea - but this would not be as profitable.
As the campaign name suggests the objective always has been and remains that Shell are forced to process at Sea. The more radical view of others on Indymedia or elsewhere are irrelevent to this message.
Victory to the Rossport people and to their supporters. And by the way, to those of you sitting and watching at a distance cheering our brave Gardai - this refinery will not happen and anybody who knows Rossport and the people of West Mayo knows this.
May God save causes from their supporters.