Shell to Sea Protest 12.30pm GPO

dublin | environment | event notice Friday October 05, 2007 12:12 by dublin shell to sea dublins2s at gmail dot com

DUBLIN SHELL TO SEA CONDEMNS 12-MONTH SIEGE AT BELLANABOY

Dublin Shell to Sea is organising a series of events in Dublin to mark a year since hundreds of gardai were drafted in to break up a 15-month-long peaceful blockade by local people at Shell's proposed refinery site at Bellanaboy, Co Mayo.

On Saturday 6th October, at 12.30pm, a protest will be held in front of the GPO on O'Connell St.

Dublin Shell to Sea is organising a series of events in Dublin to mark a year since hundreds of gardai were drafted in to break up a 15-month-long peaceful blockade by local people at Shell's proposed refinery site at Bellanaboy, Co Mayo.

These events follow an all-night, candle-lit vigil on the night of 3rd/4th October at the gates of the site. Local people gathered to mark 12 months of "an illegally conducted occupation of our community, carried out by our own state forces on behalf of Shell and their so-called Corrib gas partners," according to Rossport resident John Monaghan.

Dublin Shell to Sea's upcoming activities include:

* On Thursday 4th October, at 6pm, Dublin Shell to Sea will stage a picket at the Shell petrol station on South Circular Road in Kilmainham.

* On Saturday 6th October, at 12.30pm, a protest will be held in front of the GPO on O'Connell St.

* On Thursday 11th October, at 6.30pm, several busloads of campaigners will leave Dublin for a sit-down blockade at dawn on October 12th at the proposed refinery site in Bellanaboy.

Last week the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) deferred until November 28th its decision on whether to grant an integrated pollution prevention control (IPPC) licence for the proposed gas refinery.

Caoimhe Kerins of Dublin Shell to Sea said: "The fact that the EPA has yet to rule on whether to allow Shell to operate this refinery gives the lie to any notion that this issue is over. We're calling on people to help stop this inland refinery before it's too late."

"It's not too late to make them process at gas at sea, as is done at Kinsale," she said. "Despite a year of garda intimidation and violence, community opposition to the inland refinery is as strong as ever. The government has had to use hundreds of gardai to force through the work that has been done to date, against the wishes of local people. But the actual building of the refinery has yet to begin."

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