Reclaim the Beach: Solidarity Gathering: June Bank Holiday Weekend

mayo | environment | feature

Tuesday April 12, 2005 14:00

by Terry - NUIG Ecology Society (personal capacity)

info at shelltosea dot com

Plans For Solidarity Gathering From 4th - 6th June In Erris Revealed

From: A group of concerned individuals in Mayo and Galway:

Take a stand against Shell’s destruction in North West Mayo.

The aim of the planned gathering is to show solidarity with the local people who are opposing Shell.

There has been, and is, a long saga ongoing in the courts and planning appeal process.

On Good Friday there was a 200 strong march of local residents, that day being the 10th anniversary of the first action of Ogoni Solidarity Ireland, which supports communities in Nigeria in their battle against Shell.

During the gathering there will be live music, workshops about the issues and the area, a protest rally, and ongoing discussion about what to do next.

Bring your tent, be ready to rough it, and be as self sufficient and self organized as possible. Volunteers will be needed for food preparation, clean up and such like. Volunteers will be needed beforehand too. If you can help please ontact info@shelltosea.com

We will be running buses from Castlebar to the venue site on Saturday the 4th of June. Help us plan for this by telling us in advance if you are coming, by e-mailing info@shelltosea.com

Castlebar is well served by public transport from elsewhere in the country and there will be an information stall about the issues in Castlebar throughout the weekend.

For more information see: SHELL TO SEA (which is a work in progress and which will be updated shortly with PDFs of leaflets and a map of the area)

PREVIOUS INDYMEDIA IRELAND FEATURES:
" . . Ridden Roughshod Over By The Might Of Shell, The Irish State . . "
Shell Versus Mayo Farmers
Shell: The New Aristocracy in Mayo

Follow The 'Feature Continued' Link Below For International Links On Shell And For A Background Summary Of The Issues In Mayo

SHELL INTERNATIONAL
Leaky pipelines Shell in South Africa
Shell International’s Legacy of Pollution and Damage
Nigeria
Shell Shocked
Revealed: How Shell's desperate thirst for oil is devastating Nigeria
Sabbing Shell: Office Occupation A-Go-Go!
Shell passes the buck in Nigeria
Shell under fire from international activists
Unloveable Shell, the Goddess of Oil
Crude oil: A campaigner's battle for survival
1995: Nigeria hangs human rights activists
Ken Saro Wiwa
Shell Suit
Shell Scum
Big Trouble for Big Oil
Corporate Watch Profile of Shell
Carbon Web Library (Tons of Resources on Oil and Gas Industry)
Greenpeace on Ken Saro Wiwa
The Criminal Element

QUICK READ BACKGROUND

In Mayo Shell are planning to:

Take land from local residents and build a high pressure gas pipeline that will go past their houses:

The pressure inside the pipeline will be up to four times greater than that of the biggest Bord Gais pipelines. The pipeline will be going through boggy land with a history of landslides.

Construct a gas refinery on unstable bog:

This construction will be using previously untried methods to stabilise the bog surface and involve a massive amount of traffic. Emissions from the refinery will affect the nearby Carrowmore Lake, source of the regional water supply.

Pump toxic waste into Broadhaven Bay:

A U.C.C. research team found that Broadhaven Bay was an important breading and rearing area for dolphins and whales. They recorded over 220 sightings of seven whale and dolphin species, plus sightings of two seal species, in Broadhaven Bay and north-west Mayo waters.

The government is giving them our gas for practically nothing and then we will have to buy it back:

From 1975 for oil and gas companies there was a tax rate of 50%, an automatic 50% state stake in any commercial well, and royalties of 6 %– 7%.

In 1987, after lobbying by the companies, Ray Burke got rid of the 50% state stake and removed royalties.

In 1992 after further lobbying Bobby Molloy reduced the tax rate to 25% and 100% tax write offs were introduced, meaning that the companies can subtract their costs from their tax bill.

In other places in Europe the state take can be 55% or even 79% of a field.

Shell have been given permission by the High Court to start work on the on land parts of the pipeline in about a months time, construction is due to start on the landfall, where the off-shore pipeline hits the beach, on May 31st.

Help the local people to stop Shell!

Who Pays the Piper?

On a side note this issue totally demonstrates the importance of the independence of Indymedia.

Tony O’Reilly, owner of the Belfast Telegraph, the London and Dublin Independents, the Sunday Independent (Ireland), the Independent on Sunday (England), the Sunday World, The Star, The Evening Herald, some of the Sunday Tribune, various local weeklies including The Kerryman and the Drogheda Independent, as well as other media internationally, also owns Providence Resources.

Providence Resources are an oil and gas exploration company with interests in potential fields off the south and west coasts of Ireland.

There is the possibility that what is happening in Erris, Mayo, will only be the first instance of corporations cutting corners at the expense of the environment and local communities as they exploit the potential oil and gas reserves off the coast, particularly the west coast, of Ireland.

It goes without saying which side the “Independent Group of Newspapers” will be on in all that.

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Comments (6 of 6)

shocking

by Anitya - gluaiseacht

Fri Jun 10, 2005 16:17

greenday27186 at yahoo dot co dot uk

0876757674

hello everyone who was up at the solidarity gathering last weekend. This is really an envirnomental and human rights crisis. I have just heard that shell are stepping in quickly and the locals are opposing by not moving from the locaton shell are attempting to begin the pipeline. Bravo to them, but this is crazy. What can we do now to help??

Also ignored by John

by Terry

Wed Apr 13, 2005 15:57

(1) Claim the gas is to be exported.
(2) Fact the gas can be refined and treated at sea..as is standard practise.

For example

Wed Apr 13, 2005 15:54

John - "That gas will have to travel over a much longer pipeline to get to Ireland than would gas from a few miles offshore. What's environmentally-friendly about that?"

you could reply simply by cutting and pasting from previous articles:

"This is an unprecedented development, normally up stream pipelines of untreated gas do not go over land.

The gas pipeline also has adjoining pipelines carrying hydraulic fluid, cleansing acids, and a waste pipe.
There will also be electric cables.

This is a high pressure pipeline, 345 bar pressure for the gas, 610 bar pressure for the acids and hydraulic fluid.

It is untreated, that is, odourless, without the added smell for detecting leaks.

This is not the normal run of the mill gas pipeline.

In Kinsale the gas is refined at sea, piped ashore at a much lower pressure and odorised.

The biggest Bord Gais pipelines, in the so-called Transmission network, bringing the gas cross-country or overseas, run at 16 – 70 bar pressure.

This development is so unprecedented the relevant legislation and regulations assumes its non-existence, that is, it applies to off shore upstream pipelines and to on land ones of around the levels of pressure used by Bord Gais.

The large pressure is necessary as the pipeline is actually pumping the gas straight out of the field, normally this process takes place completely at sea"

Or:

"At the same time you have what is an unprecedented high pressure pipeline running through the villages of Glengad, Rossport and Gortacragher and well this pipeline; the difficulty here at the moment is to get the message out to people who have only a passing knowledge of this, this pipeline is not like the Bord Gais pipelines.

It is in private ownership and the pressure of gas inside it is totally different and the pressure inside it can be up to four times greater than that of the biggest Bord Gais pipelines in the country. You normally have one bar pressure bringing the gas into houses in towns. You have transmission pressure of up to 70 bar in the big Bord Gais pipelines, this pressure in this pipeline is between 150 bar and 345 bar, at the maximum that is 5,000 pounds per square inch pressure."

- and this last bit from an article John actually posted a comment to.
Now he will not reply to this post, but he will post a comment to the next story on Shell again having either not read the argument contained in what he is commenting on or having done so but pretending to have not.

Life under a bridge

Tue Apr 12, 2005 21:11

John has posted similar comment to several, all?, Shell in Mayo stories now and NEVER responded to peoples' reply to his argument..then gone to the next story and out with same line again. John you wouldn't scare a hobbit.

Did you even read the article?

by Joe

Tue Apr 12, 2005 17:33

John you'd be more convincing if you offered some evidence of having read the article rather than coming out with the old and tired media/IBEC line about progress.

As far as I can see there are three main objections
1. We are being ripped off by the terms Shell have been given
2. The current project design is unsafe in particular in the location it is planned
3. The environmental consequences for the current location will be serious.

These claims could be false but you have made no attempt to argue this - instead you treat us to a lecture on how wonderful progress is. Yet progress as in the 'Glen of the Downs' simply meant big profits for developers who had bought land in the Arklow to Gorey corridor and two hour commutes for Dublin workers.

Corrib

by John

Tue Apr 12, 2005 17:27

[ Cut and paste of comment previously posted by John replaced by URL below. - IMC Ed]

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Reclaim the Beach: Solidarity Gathering: June Bank Holiday Weekend

Comments (6 of 6)