‘North Mayo residents say ruling vindicates their stance’

Irish Times, 04 November 2009
North Mayo residents say ruling vindicates their stance
LORNA SIGGINS

NORTH Mayo residents have said that An Bord Pleanála’s ruling on the Corrib gas onshore pipeline is a “vindication” of their stance on health and safety grounds.

Pobal Chill Chomáin spokesman John Monaghan and resident Mary Corduff also said that Minister for Energy Eamon Ryan and his department had “serious questions to answer” in relation to endorsement of the safety of the proposed modified pipeline route at the oral hearing .

A spokeswoman for Mr Ryan said his first priority “has and always will be the safety of the affected community”.

Ms Corduff said this was the outcome of “project splitting”. Her community had “suffered intimidation over years” for their opposition, she said. “In 2003, Bord Pleanála inspector Kevin Moore described the Bellanaboy site for the refinery as ‘the wrong site’ from a strategic planning perspective,” she said. “Mr Moore should have been listened to. Shell should go back to the drawing board now.”

Former Bord Gáis engineering manager Leo Corcoran, who was one of the appellants at the recent oral hearing, said the location of the landfall valve installation at Glengad was “ socially unsustainable” and did not comply with internationally acceptable codes of practice.

“The current application is an attempt to retrofit a failed design to meet the required codes of practice,” Mr Corcoran said.

Shell to Sea spokeswoman Maura Harrington said: “What An Bord Pleanála have really shown today is that the Corrib gas pipeline is not safe to be routed through our community, or indeed any residential area.

“Shell have consistently shown their inability and unwillingness to make this project safe – what it needs is a total overhaul, with real consideration given to the genuine problems with the project raised by campaigners.”

Ms Harrington took issue with the board’s provisional approval if alterations, including a new route, were applied for, saying “Ireland’s real strategic interest would be in regaining control of our natural resources”.

Justice and peace group Action from Ireland (Afri) welcomed the acknowledgment of “legitimate safety concerns of local people”.

“Shell built a refinery in the wrong place and laid an offshore pipeline and they can’t connect one to the other – this was always a crazy approach to planning,” Afri spokesman Andy Storey said.

“For years, local people objecting to this project have been called ignorant and have been the subject of harassment and intimidation, but their position has now been vindicated,” Mr Storey added.

“It is not too late to review this entire project and to ensure that the gas, if it is to be extracted at all, be refined offshore or at a location acceptable to the local community, and that the deal with Shell be renegotiated to ensure the Irish people get a fairer share of the proceeds,” he said

Planning decision on Corrib onshore pipeline

From: Shell to Sea Community Campaign
Date: Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 4:10 PM
Subject: [ShelltoSeaNews] Planning board defer again citing safety doubts…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

http://www.shelltosea.com

SEE RTE NEWS LAST NIGHT
http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/1102/9news_av.html?2640894,null,230

An Bord Pleanala today announced a deferral of the decision on the
Corrib Gas onshore Pipeline, citing 14 conditions which cast huge
doubt over claims from Shell that the project is safe. In the third
delay on the decision regarding this pipeline, which was originally
due on August 10, the Bord have highlighted
hugely important safety concerns which are at the heart of the
community’s objections to the imposition of the Corrib Gas Project on
the area.

An Bord Pleanala stated that the documentation provided by Shell ‘does
not present a complete, transparent and adequate demonstration that
the pipeline does not provide an unacceptable risk to the public’.

Some of the glaring inadequacies pointed out by An Bord Pleanala include:

* Shell omitted details on the start of the onshore pipeline,
which has the highest pressure -345bar

* A totally new Quantitative Risk Assessment required, that shows the risk
at the different locations and operating conditions along the route

* Incomplete information on ‘building burn distances’ and ‘escape distances’.

* No assessment of the ’societal risk’ to people at Glengad has been
carried out.

The Bord also highlighted the fact that ‘Major hazard pipelines’
(transporting wet gas) have not been properly legislated for in this
country, and they therefore stated that UK standards relating to
comparable pipelines should be used.

Shell to Sea spokesperson Maura Harrington said: “What An Bord
Pleanala have really shown today is that the Corrib Gas pipeline is
not safe to be routed through our community, or indeed any residential
area. Shell have consistently shown their inability and unwillingness
to make this project safe – what it
needs is a total overhaul, with real consideration given to the
genuine problems with the project raised by campaigners”.

She added: “While we appreciate that An Bord Pleanala are under huge
pressure from the government and Shell to allow this, they should not
be making pre-emptive statements about supporting the project if Shell
address safety concerns. This compromises their position in implying
that if a project is submitted as Strategic Infrastructure, it will be
pushed through regardless of the severe danger it poses to peoples lives. Ireland’s real strategic
interest would be in regaining control of our natural resources.”

Report from Rossport Solidarity Camp – reposting

Greetings from Mayo,

Here’s some news since our last update, with links to indymedia:

Courts

The 2006 policy of “no arrest” has been replaced with a policy of arrest, charge and get campaigners in jail out of the way. The abuse of the court system has been rampant with local retired teacher Maura Harrington jailed 4 times this year for alleged incidents during protest against the project. http://www.indymedia.ie/article/94011

Niall Harnett has also been targeted and jailed for alleged obstruction and assault on a Garda – despite video evidence shown in court which suggests otherwise. http://www.indymedia.ie/article/93525

Both are out on bail for appeal.

More recently, in a case brought by local woman Monica Muller, Shell have been found guilty of contempt of court – exactly the same reason used to jail the Rossport 5 for three months back in 2005. Sentencing has been deferred after Shell stated that they were “unhappy” with the ruling. http://www.indymedia.ie/article/93961

Shell to Sea court resumes next week with a raft of Shell to Sea cases to be heard in Belmullet from Monday the 28th to Wednesday the 30th, with Thursday and Friday also set aside if extra time is needed. There are court dates being scheduled for the rest of the year as well, with the possibility of more jail sentences being handed down.

Compound & camp at Glengad

At the moment, Shell are moving out of Glengad, most of the compound has been removed and it looks like they are trying to get out by the end of the month. The camp at Glengad has also just come down for the winter and we’ve moved back to the Solidarity House in Barr na Coille, across the estuary from Rossport. We’re aiming to keep the house open for visitors who want to learn more about the campaign & work against the Corrib Gas Project.

Campaign Work

There is plenty that can be done from here or from your own areas – Galway Shell to Sea group with the support of Afri and the community here in Erris are organising a new petitioning initiative calling for a suspension of the work on the Corrib gas project. http://www.indymedia.ie/article/93846

Earlier Stories

Here are more stories from the summer, with links to indymedia articles.

Since the beginning of June water actions against dredging and the Solitaire – Shell’s contracted pipe laying ship – continued, forcing Shell’s dredging fleet out of Broadhaven bay on one occasion. http://www.indymedia.ie/article/92596

In one of the most shocking episodes of the campaign so far, a fishing boat was boarded and sunk out at sea in the dead of night by armed masked men. The crew – two local men opposed to the project – were held at gunpoint for hours and then left aboard a sinking ship. Thankfully they managed to launch the life raft and escape with their lives to tell the story. http://www.indymedia.ie/article/92657

This attack was not totally out of the blue however as earlier in the year Willie Corduff was badly beaten inside the landfall site by masked men. http://www.indymedia.ie/article/92036

Misinformation in the media and dire lack of investigation ensured neither attack gained the popular coverage appropriate. http://www.indymedia.ie/article/93009

In anticipation of protest against the Solitaire, the State sent in a force amounting to a hostile occupation – 350 Gardai, with Garda RIBs and a Garda helicopter, 2 navy warships with attendant RIBs and divers & an air force plane. This is on top of Shell’s private army of 200 IRMS security guards. IRMS is a company infamously specialising in “armed and unarmed” international security. http://www.indymedia.ie/article/92865

Once again this year local fishermen stood up for their rights to uphold their licences to fish in Broadhaven Bay. Again the Gardai and Navy were used to remove the fishermen from their place of work by unlawfully arresting them for “loitering” removing and damaging their gear and impounding their vessels. http://www.indymedia.ie/article/92858

Despite this show of force – and continued waste of state funds – protest and direct action continued, with Shell and the state caught out by kayakers in the deep sea http://www.indymedia.ie/article/92880 and by consecutive tripod and lock-on road blockade actions on land. http://www.indymedia.ie/article/92918

The Gardai continued abusing the public order act in a bid to quell legitimate protest on land. People were held in custody for days and only released on bail if they would stay out of county Mayo until their cases were heard. These over-the-top measures were for alleged minor offences, with none of the accused having previous convictions. http://www.indymedia.ie/article/92935

So it happened that with objectors unfairly barred from the county, fishermen forcibly removed from the water and a community under siege, the Solitaire – aided by perfect weather and all the resources of the state – laid the Corrib Gas Pipeline from landfall at Glengad to the Corrib Gas field 80km west of Mayo deep under the Atlantic.

With the right to protest virtually extinguished in Erris, the kayakers brought the protest to KIllybegs – Shell’s hub port for the project – occupying one of the Solitaire’s pipe supply ships. http://www.indymedia.ie/article/93050

Oral Hearing

As Shell ploughed on with the Offshore pipeline in Broardhaven, An Bord Pleanala held an oral hearing into Shell’s application for a modified onshore pipeline route to link the refinery to the now laid offshore pipeline. The verdict is expected to be announced or before the 23rd of October. During the oral hearing, local expertise built up over the years, along with expert witnesses, forced Shell into admitting that their project creates a killzone along the pipeline route in the event of an accident. If permission is granted Shell say they will begin work on the onshore section next year.

So, see at least some of you during the week, and hopefully more throughout the rest of the year.

All the best,

Everyone at the Camp

Time magazine obituary of Countess Markievicz, 1927

In previous posts I posted letters to the Irish Times and Irish Independent which challenged the allegations they contained about Countess Markievicz’s involvement in the shooting of a policeman on Easter Week in 1916. I just stumbled across Time Magazine’s obituary of the Countess in which they termed her a “murderess” and accused her of a completely different killing:

In 1916 one of the guards of the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin resisted the entrance of a mob led by the Countess Markievicz. She opened her purse, drew out a pistol, shot the guard dead, and continued to lead a faction of the great Republican demonstration staged in Dublin throughout the notorious “Black Easter Week.”

The truth of the matter is that Markievicz intervened to save the doorkeeper’s life as the occupation was taking place:

Frank Robbins of the St Stephen’s Green contingent related that, as the College of Surgeons was being occupied, the doorkeeper let off a shotgun blast, nearly hitting Robbins.

Markievicz’s intervention saved the man, whom Robbins and the others considered shooting.

Remember, when you come to write history from the imperialist point of view, make sure your women are crazy and your facts are a mirror image of the truth – in other words, backwards.

Protestant victims of institutional abuse

I got an email from a man named Derek Leinster in July that I unfortunately did not see at the time drawing my attention to an article in the Irish Times. I repost the article here.

Irish Times, Wednesday, July 1, 2009
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2009/0701/1224249837505.html
Protestant abuse victims must also be heard
OPINION: Victims of Protestant prejudice and State neglect are at a disadvantage, writes DEREK LEINSTER

YOU DON’T have to be a Catholic to be listened to as a victim of institutional abuse, but it seems to help. That is my experience as a Protestant victim of institutional neglect. Like all sufferers, I am a victim of prejudice.

It was prejudice that forced my mother into the Bethany Home in Orwell Road, Rathgar in 1941 for the “social sin” (as one cleric put it) of being pregnant out of wedlock. To add to her burden, her gestating baby had a Catholic father. Marriage in those circumstances was out, and so was I, fostered out to a dysfunctional family in Wicklow where I was beaten black and blue and (I mention it since it seems to be what Irish people are most interested in) sexually molested.

I left school illiterate when I was 13 and Ireland when I was 18, still unable to read or write. Some people escaped Catholic Ireland. I escaped the equally self-contained Protestant version, from Wicklow to Wakefield, in England.

Patsy McGarry wrote all too briefly about my call to include the Bethany Home in the Irish State’s redress scheme, but a lot about abuse being something peculiarly Irish and Catholic (Irish Times, June 20th). I can assure him that just being Irish was reason enough. That and being poor was often sufficient.

Labour campaign illegally on polling day

Labour supporters illegally campaign outside Dublin polling centre

Shortly after 9 p.m. on polling day, June 5 2009, supporters of Labour candidate Áine Clancy stand outside the polling centre at St Joseph’s School, Navan Road, Dublin. They mysteriously disappeared just after spotting me taking this image. Three fellow voters accompanying me also witnessed this.

The placard was mounted on a professional shop-like sign, so this demonstration was evidently not a spontanous or unoffical one.

(Apologies for the poor quality of the image.)

Archbishop Tutu expresses concern over attack on Irish campaigner

AFRI, Action From Ireland
Press Announcement: 11-05-09
Afri, 134 Phibsborough Road, Dublin 7, Ireland.
Tel: +353 (0)1 882 7563/7581 Fax: +353 (0)1 882 7576

e-mail: afri@iol.ie
web:

www.afri.ie
______________________________________________________________
STATEMENT FROM THE REVEREND DESMOND M TUTU
Archbishop of Cape Town
11 May 2009

As patron of the justice and peace organisation Afri, a disturbing development
in the ongoing resource conflict in Erris, County Mayo, has been brought to my
attention.

A peaceful protestor, Goldman International Environmental Award Winner Mr.
Willie Corduff has been physically attacked, under cover of darkness, by the
agents of a multinational corporation, resulting in his being hospitalised and
left severely hurt and traumatised.

Goldman prize recipients express concern over violence against Rossport activist

MORE THAN 20 recipients of the Goldman international environmental award have appealed to President Mary McAleese, Taoiseach Brian Cowen and Norwegian prime minister Jens Stoltenberg to intervene in the Corrib gas conflict in north Mayo.

…

“Both Ireland and Norway pride themselves on the depth of their democratic process.. All that the people from Co Mayo are attempting is to exercise their democratic right to say No to the Shell and Statoil project, in a peaceful manner, as required from a democracy,” the letter says.

“The violence perpetuated against Corduff and lack of protection from the State sadly reflects a possible decay in both the democracies of Ireland and Norway,” it continues, and it “urgently and humbly” seeks intervention of the recipients of the letter in “what is becoming a humanitarian crisis”.

Read the full article here.

On being an M.E./Aspie alien

Oddly enough, M.E. and Asperger’s Syndrome have some overlapping symptoms. Some of these include, for example, a sensitivity to sounds and bright lights, sensory overload and food intolerances. Something else I’ve noticed is the tendency to tunnel vision and very specific interests. For the person with M.E., an extreme focus can be the only way to get things done.

Not surprisingly, another thing common to both is an extreme isolation. ‘Aspies’ often describe themselves as feeling as though they come from another planet. Eventually, this is bound to happen when you have M.E. It may happen suddenly or gradually, but sooner or later you will realise with a shock that every little facet of human life that you used to have in common with others – work, a social life, holidays, relationships, shopping, food – has radically diminished, or been stripped away entirely.

People with M.E. can potentially resume normal life, assuming that they are lucky to have a half decent doctor who will intervene with the right treatment in time, just as some Aspies are lucky enough to be able to function fairly well in society, or can reach that level with early access to therapy. The difference is in the resources available to Aspies as opposed to those with M.E. People with Asperger’s are regarded with interest by the medical community. People with M.E. are treated with such contempt and hatred that many are treated for PTSD. The fact that the majority of Aspies are men, and most people with M.E. are women, just might be relevant here, given that 19th century norms are somehow still regarded as relevant in medical practice.

Gender assumptions have also seen girls with Asperger’s ignored and marginalised because they didn’t fit certain Aspie stereotypes, leading them to grow up in fear and with cripplingly low self-esteem. (Researchers are now saying that the ratio of boys to girls with AS is likely to be in the range of 2.5:1 and not 10:1 as conventional wisdom has it.)

Low self-esteem and constant fear are words which ring painfully true for me. Tony Atwood says:

Boys go into attack mode when frustrated, while girls suffer in silence and become passive-aggressive. Girls learn to appease and apologise. They learn to observe people from a distance and imitate them. It is only if you look closely and ask the right questions, you see the terror in their eyes and see that their reactions are a learnt script.

The thing with me was that I was rather contrary because I had been brought up not to be ashamed of myself. Nevertheless, being in school was torture. I developed the habit of constantly saying “sorry”, schooled my features not to show emotion, and observed others to work out what was expected of me in various situations. However, I refused to change fundamentally. I would not adopt opinions or fake an interest in fashion or pop music even though I knew I was setting myself up as a target by so doing. I claimed the right to judge what teachers told me on its merits – which they hated. I changed from a happy, cheeky child to a silent, harassed one – but I hung onto myself somehow. My sister remembers an incident in the playground when one of my classmates walked up to me, out of the blue, and stated, “I hate you, Claire.” Apparently I looked at her coolly and said, “The feeling is mutual.” My younger sister thought of me as a kind of hero for dealing with the bully in this effective manner.

So which is worse – the physical isolation of M.E. or the social isolation of Asperger’s. I really cannot decide. Each have caused dreadful anguish in their own way. But after twelve years, the hurt of having M.E. has diminished somewhat, and the knowledge of having AS illuminates what happened in the past and allows me to get beyond it. In the end, living with AS, now that I have it rather than suffer from it, may turn out to be slightly easier – at least until doctors don’t sneer when I mention the term “M.E.”.

Blogging Against Disablism Day

Shell terrorists attack Goldman prize winner… and the Irish and British media lie about it.

http://www.indymedia.ie/article/92036
http://www.corribsos.com/

“I thought they were trying to kill me. They beat me until I stopped moving. I heard one of them say, ‘Stop now lads, he’s nearly finished.’ ” – Willie Corduff

Willie Corduff was set upon and beaten by Shell’s hired thugs in balaclavas as he blocked one of their vehicles. Two years to the day after he was awarded the prestigious Goldman environmental prize, Mr Corduff was protesting what locals insist are illegal works when he was set upon by the security workers, who knelt on his face, twisted his arms behind his back and beat him with an implement.

According the official Garda report, ‘a “well-known protester” had been escorted from the site early yesterday and was transferred to hospital as he was complaining of feeling “unwell”‘ (the Irish Times). The BBC, the Irish media and the Gardai have collaborated to lie about the situation (BBC: “A security guard has been injured after a gang of up to 15 armed and masked men attacked a Shell pipeline site in County Mayo. It is understood boltcutters were used to gain access to the Glengad landfall site. Irish police said the attackers used a company digger on the site and caused considerable damage to the compound.”), a tactic which is common in this situation as the media and police make the anti-pipeline protesters out to be terrorists.

The matter at issue is Shell’s intent to build an off-shore pipeline which will pump gas through a pipe which will be built right through a rural village. Locals’ land has been seized for this purpose, works have been built without planning permission, and Gardai have routinely assaulted protesters, who have been brought before the courts on trumpted-up charges. Journalists have termed locals “terrorists” and members of the IRA, and Kevin Myers wrote that one woman, who was concussed after being pushed to the ground, should instead have her head smashed open.