Rossport Solidarity Camp

Peat haulage stopped by protesters during a day of solidarity on Friday the 13th of January. The action took place at a Bord na Mona owned site at Shramore, which Shell are using as a dumping ground

IRMS security hired by shell, occupying the State owned site yet again, demonstrated their lack of concern for health and safety. Outside police pushed protesters off the road, while one halted lorry driver expressed his intentions to police that he would clear the road by driving into protestors. Later spirits were high as police did not even attempt to clear the road when over 15 protesters lay down to block a lorry, which had to be diverted. Later the police returned and used brute force to push people off the road. They hospitalized one protestor.

At 8am on the 13th of January, 30 protesters arrived at the Bord Na Mona owned site in shramore. This site is being used to dump excavated peat from the tunnel boring compound in Aughoose. There have been an estimated 206 truck movements per day this month hauling peat and gravel between these two sites.

Protesters entered the site, some were immediately tackled to the ground and evicted through a hole in the fence. A group made it’s way towards the compound but about five were jumped on by IRMS, some illegally searched and one camera and a coat was stolen. Soon the police arrived onsite and the group were escorted out by police and IRMS.

 
Throughout the day groups of protesters spread out throughout the site halting any onsite work, while outside protesters stopped trucks from entering the site. Gardai and IRMS worked together to remove protesters obstructing trucks. On several incidents drivers refused to stop the vehicles when blocked by protesters. One protester was unlawfully arrested while blocking a truck. He received no warnings and when asked what law the Gardai were arresting him under no reply was given. He was later charged at Belmullet Garda station.

By 1pm workers began a limited amount of work transporting peat across the site. A group entered the back of the site to halt the work. However when they tried to stop work, peat was unloaded into a ditch one protester was standing in.

 
Out on the road protesters formed a huge lie down halting a truck.The gardai didn’t even attempt to remove the protesters and the truck was diverted.

A short time later they returned when protesters stopped another truck. This time they aggressively shoved protesters into the ditch. One protester was dropped by the gardai onto a rock on the verge of the road seriously injuring his spine and leg. Police immediately fled the scene of the accident not even calling an ambulance. The injured protester had to wait two hours for an ambulance to arrive. During this time gardai returned to clear the road again, shoving people dangerously close to the casualty. An ambulance arrived around 5pm and took the protester to Castlebar hospital. He was let out later that night with a diagnosis of spinal tissue and nerve damage. Two days later he still has not regained feeling in his left leg.

 
Work was successfully shut inside the Shramore site and haulage was halted for the day. When Protesters took to the road on Saturday all haulage was also halted for the day.

 

On 12 January 2012 Shell contractor Lennon Quarries used a water cannon on peaceful protesters. The seven campaigners had gone to Lennon Quarry to protest against the quarry providing stone to Shell for their attempt to build a 5km tunnel under Sruwaddacon estuary. The high powered water jet usually used as a dust suppression water tanker was trained on the protesters for about 10 minutes, as six of them occupied the tops of a digger and a truck. The drenched protesters remained there until the guards came and gave them a warning, stopping work for 2 hours overall.

See more photos from the day here, and read a personal account of the day below.

Those of us who were awake enjoyed a short breakfast and then talked about various options for action, eventually settling on occupying and freezing the work of the quarries, quickly perusing a map of the area and noting the roads we could use to gain entrance. A few minutes later we set out in two cars towards the site.

After about a half hour drive we arrived at our drop-off point. Five of us began walking towards the quarry while our two drivers parked, planning to meet us inside the ground of the private property.

Running down a hill, into the quarry I saw the first signs of clouds all day, set against the 50 ft mounds of ground stone. The IRMS security didn’t seem to expect us and we were making good progress. Three of us scaled and occupied the top of a digger and a truck used to transport stone, whilst the other two recorded everything they saw. A brief struggle occurred between two of our cameramen and the owner of the quarry and both were assaulted entirely unprovoked. One camera was also completely broken.

I and my companion began a game of chess on top of the digger. My queen had just been taken when we noticed there was another element that was to come into play. It was large , yellow, and very far from being a magnetised chess piece.

Apart from being frozen and drenched, the rainbows made by the water cannon were excellent and I really hope the IRMS understand the beauty they helped create for all of us (and which they could be capable of creating in times to come!) while we danced around the digger’s claws and the top of the loading truck trying to avoid the downpour. Our spirits were lifted by one of our group who began to gleefully scale a huge mound of quarried stone whilst being unsuccessfully pursued by a member of IRMS.

At this time it seems appropriate to highlight the dangers of using a high-powered water cannon against anyone on high ground. Had any of of us been knocked of, or slipped, we could have been seriously injured. One of our team attempted to block the truck before it sprayed us and was nearly run over by an aggressive driver in the process.

Eventually they stopped with the coming of the guards and our realisation that every piece on the chessboard had been knocked off by the water, bar one pawn, the symbolism of which was not lost on us. After getting a warning, we left.

Tuesday 10 January 2012 disruption to the felling of the Coillte woodland for Shell’s planned onshore pipeline (along with the stopping of haulage trucks to the Aughoose compound), continued as protestors intercepted a specialist 8-track tree felling machine between the Aughoose tunnelling compound and Leenamore forest.

A Barrett’s truck transporting the machine was halted as it made the 1km journey at 7am this morning by a small band of merry protestors, one of whom quickly ascended the arm and settled into position as a lone Garda looked on. Several more Gardaí soon came to join her supported by a large number of IRMS staff who have been positioned along the road by the forest since yesterday.

As a wintery dawn broke over the beseiged bog the Gardaí “removal” team arrived along with their “transporter”, driven by Sgt Aidan Gill, who then proceeded to initiate Garda attacks on the gathering supporters, in the name of health and safety.

Following some hasty positioning of ‘crash-mattresses’ and blankets (!!) on and around the machine an attempt was made to remove the protestors, only for the Gardaí to discover that the protestor had D-locked her neck to the machine.

In an extraordinarily reckless move, the Gardaí then decided to use an angle grinder just millimeters away from the protestors’ head, all to enable the continuation of Shell’s work for the day.

However the delay of 3 & 1/2 hours to the tree felling had also thwarted all deliveries of stone and removals of peat at the Aughoose compound as the driver of the truck carrying the machine had been swerving so much, as to end up preventing the passage of any other trucks on the road.
After being taken down the protestor was arrested and charged and is due to appear in Belmullet court along with 4 other campaigners.

Later on in the evening another protest was called for outside Bellanaboy, however it seems the latest activity has resulted in a further increase in the amount of Gardaí loitering in the area. About 15 Gardaí were immediately on hand and so not too many trucks were stopped in the evening.

See more photos from the day here.

Rossport Solidarity Camp is calling for support in advance of this coming Friday the 13th of January. Friday is the first Day of Solidarity of the new year, when people from around Ireland are invited to join the protests for a day to show their support for the ongoing resistance to the Corrib Gas Project.

Come and help to stop Shell’s onshore raw gas pipeline

Shell today began to cut down a Coillte plantation in the village of Leenamore, Co. Mayo. This surprise move marks the beginning of their attempts to prepare the 4km stretch of land between the Aughoose tunnelling compound and the Bellanaboy refinery. Despite a large Garda and private security presence, campaigners entered the tree felling area and halted work.

Shell starting this section of the pipeline was completely unanticipated both by local campaigners and those of us living at Rossport Solidarity Camp. Rumour had it that the clearing of the plantation might not happen until later in the year. As it happened many of us had planned to take the day off actions today to tend the camp gardens, carve new wind turbine blades, bake bread and work on other projects. The day turned out quite different to how we planned…

When we arrived at Leenamore at 11am we saw that they were cutting down trees at two different sections of the road and setting up a machinery storage compound. There was a heavy Garda presence including members of the public order unit with no number tags. There were twenty Gardaí and at least fifty of Shell’s private security IRMS attempting to guard the tree line. There was seven of us, basically meaning we were outnumbered by about 10 to 1.

A few of us tried to get over the fence or into the trees to prevent the tree cutting from happening. Five of us succeeded in breaching lines of security to impede work at different times. Some of us were carried back over the barbed wire fence by security guards. The security guards had real difficulty in removing us from the area as the ground was extremely uneven and boggy. They kept stumbling as they carried us out and it was really dangerous for the security themselves. The Gardai were standing out on the road and wouldn’t let us stand on the road.

After trying to get in over the fence along the road a few times, several campaigners broke away to try to enter from further away and disappeared in the woods.

To everyone’s delight, one campaigner reappeared about an hour later, on top of a tree-cutting digger. Another campaigner, also reappeared a hour later, without his trousers! His explanation was that the ski-suit he had been wearing had been causing rustling as he approached security lines so eventually he had to resort to removing them and run in his thermals to make it to climb a tree that was in the path of Shell’s destruction. As a newcomer to the camp, this is his experience of trying to stop Shell in his own words;

“I arrived at the camp a few days ago. It’s my first visit. I spent the first day helping to block lorries and got a good chance ot be active against Shell’s destruction. This morning everyone was surprised that Shell were starting work on the forest. A few of us went away to come at the machinery from another angle. We crawled through the woods towards the area they were cutting slowly. As were crawling towards the digger I darted off left. All the security were shouting ‘hold the line’. I kept running until a group of security broke away from a group at the road and started running after me. I ran back into the woods with them running behind me shouting, so I went to ground and hid for 20 minutes. Then crawled down a bit and looked up to see where they were and they were all around me. I had to run accorss a big gap where they could all see me and into another patch of woods. With them all running behind me I got into the trees again. I reached the first suitable tree to climb just to the right of the tree-cutting-digger. By the time I was up the security guards had run past me but couldn’t see me. Fifteen or twenty of them were below filming and wandering around. They shouting at me, things like ‘are you going to come down?’ and ‘Chop him down!’. I climbed right to the top to see where the digger was. I swung to another tree and then to another to get a bit closer to the digger as it moved. I stayed up for about 45 minutes as the digger broke up the trees beside me. The security guards started to get more and more angry with me. They started shaking the tree and getting sticks. I said, ‘I’m really going to want to come down with you doing that!’. I negotiated with them to let me come down safely and agreed that one of them would escourt me out of the woods. I met up with the other campers and camp back to get a cup of tea and some food. A few local people called in to catch up with us. I feel good to be here to so far. I’ve met some good people. I found it good to be doing actions with energetic people who have been fighting this campaign for a long time.”

The other camper up on the tree-cutter stayed up to stop work until 6.30pm before coming down. This camper reported that one of the IRMS security supervisors that had been running after him in the woods, as he got to the tree-cutter, had injured his ankle and had eventually been stretchered off the site. The campaigners were not arrested as the cutting was happening on private land.

New camp members are always welcome and even if you don’t feel like crawling around in the woods in your first few days there is plenty of other things to do…

Rossport Solidarity Camp is calling for support in advance of this coming Friday the 13th of January. Friday is the first Day of Solidarity of the new year, when people from around Ireland are invited to join the protests for a day to show their support for the ongoing resistance to the Corrib Gas Project.

 

Yesterday saw the first disruption of Shell’s work of the New Year with a quickly organised protest called for 10am outside Bellanaboy. Overall Shell’s work yesterday was stopped for 2 hours and in a further protest today (Saturday), work was stopped for a further 2 & 1/2 hours.

With the Shell trucks, which were carrying stone and peat to and from the Aughoose compound blocked, it took the Gardaí over an hour to gather sufficient numbers together to move the assembled campaigners from the road. After which the campaigners began walking up and down the road disrupting the single trucks that were intermittently sent out to the test the way for the rest of the Shell haulage. Eventually the Gardaí resorted to arresting 3 members of Rossport Solidarity Camp, who were then brought to Belmullet and charged and released on bail to appear at Belmullet District Court next Wednesday.

Saturday’s protest was a very calm affair with only two Gardaí turning up.  Trucks were stopped for 2 & 1/2 hours.

Commenting on the latest protests, Rossport Solidarity Camp spokesperson Con Coughlan stated “This is the first disruption to Shell plans to lay the onshore pipeline this year but it most certainly won’t be the last. We call on everyone who is sick of the way that our democracy has been taken away from us because of unchecked corporate power, to come and support this community in their struggle to have a say what happens in their area”

Con Coughlan continued “Shell made €18.2bn profit in the first 9 months of 2011, and yet still got a €12.7m tax credit from the Irish exchequer last year. Enda Kenny talks about making tough choices, which he seems to think means going after pensioners and the other vulnerable people of our society. Yet he and his Government are continuing the policy of giving away our valuable oil and gas resources to these outrageously rich companies, with no benefit to the country”.

See more photos from the day here.

Protesters give Shell an early Christmas present

The Shell to Sea campaign is still running strong 11 years after the inception of the Corrib gas project. Everyday people are becoming aware of the people’s struggle against Shell, but still more are needed to come and see for themselves and save our country from the global corporate takeover.

On Friday 9th of December, people from the Rossport Solidarity Camp continued with the ongoing protests slowing down Shell’s work. Spirits were high and people were pleased with the action despite the Chief’s legal judgement [http://www.indymedia.ie/article/101060] people still braced the cold conditions to continue the protest.

Saturday 10th December 2011 a Day of Solidarity commenced with groups of people from all over the country coming out to support the local campaign against Shell. People from the Occupy camps in Galway, Dublin and Cork came to protest Shell’s occupation of Erris. Protesters stood outside the compound at Aughoose for 2 hours preventing any work from starting, resulting in Shell calling off work for the entire day.

Monday 12th December 2011 a spontaneous action happened along Shell’s haulage route where 15 people stopped about 12 trucks for over an hour, no arrests were made, the small Garda presence were no match for the swiftness and bravery of the protesters. The only casualty was a bike unlawfully confiscated by the Gardaí.

On Tuesday 13th the regular protest took place at the Ballinaboy compound. Around 15 protesters were met with an equal number of Gardaí who prevented people walking on the road. The right to peaceful protest was met with the threat of arrest. People still managed to stop 7 trucks for 40 minutes. Strong cold winds and hail, combined with the protesters, stopped Shell doing any work on the Tuesday.

Through internet and Occupy groups in various Irish cities there is an outlet for information of upcoming actions and events. Friday the 13th  in January is the next Day of Solidarity; all are welcome to come and bring some bad luck unto Shell.

Work was completely halted at Shell’s compound 1 December 2011 for over five hours in a great show of resilience by local campaigners and their supporters. For the past two weeks now, Shell have been attempting to remove masses of peat from the compound in preparation for the tunnel boring machine which is expected to arrive early next year. Progress has been continuously disrupted as protesters brave the winter weather to stop trucks and a determined resistance is building momentum.

A local campaigner yesterday waited patiently outside the main gate of Shell’s compound in his car and requested to see someone in charge. For weeks now he has been trying to lodge complaints about public safety and traffic issues generated from the Aughoose compound. His concerns have been to date ignored. Having contacted the Shell offices in Belmullet and the refinery he was further directed by staff to go and try lodge his complaints at the compound in Aughoose where following a long wait his request remained unanswered. Once again the serious concerns of local people were ignored.

In the meantime, protesters arrived to slow work down and were met with six garda vehicles and a dozen or more Gardaí along with just as many IRMS security. A tractor was prevented from entering the compound with equipment despite Gardaí pushing and shoving protesters around the road. Once the campaigners asked the Gardaí to fullfil their duty and arrest them for blocking Shell vehicles the Gardaí stepped back. It is obvious that the state’s police force here in Mayo prefer to employ violence against protesters where possible. Civil disobedience in numbers made them think again.

For the following 4 hours the gates remained shut, a long line of trucks and tractors turned off their engines and work ground to a halt as campaigners continued to peacefully demonstrate. One local person was assaulted by IRMS and after many requests the Gardaí eventually took his complaint. No arrests were made in a highly spirited day. An Garda Siochana, who are supposedly the guardians of the peace, can blatantly be seen to be guardians of corporations and corruption up here in Erris.

The struggle continues. Be part of the resistance. All are welcome to stay at our winter camp or come join us during our day of solidarity on Saturday, 10th of December.

Come up to Mayo, people are needed

Friday 25th November saw over 5 hours of Shell’s peat and stone haulage completely blocked by campaigners, and no arrests were made. First thing in the morning four campaigners had trucks blocked for over an hour and a half, and later on one person climbed on top of a peat truck outside Shell’s Bellanaboy refinery, remaining there for 3 and a half hours stopping all haulage.

At about 7.15am Friday 25th November four people went out to Shell’s haulage route to stop workers from getting to the Aughoose tunneling compound. A van full of workers was stopped, along with the first load of quarry trucks which came along about 10-15 minutes later.

A  squad car with one garda was present, but he was unable to stop people from blocking on his own. Eventually more gardaí arrived so people stopped blocking, and the trucks that had been stopped up all morning started making their way to the compound. No arrests made.

 

Later that day at 3.30pm, three people stopped a peat truck outside Gate 1 of Shell’s Bellanaboy refinery. Seeing as there were only three people to block the truck and gardaí would surely arrive soon to move people out of the road, one person climbed on top of the lorry to ensure all haulage would be stopped.

Solidarity camp member Grainne Clancy speaks, “We are doing all we can with the numbers we have at the moment, but we really need more people up here right now. Sometimes there’s only a couple of us blocking, if we had even a few more people we could be doing a lot more to disrupt Shell’s peat removal”

She continues, “There have been some actions like the last Barrett’s [quarry in Bangor] one, where security could barely handle us as it was, and with a couple more people we would have been successful”

See report and photos from Barrett’s quarry action here:  http://shelltosea.com/content/shells-peat-haulage-has-begun-and-been-disrupted

On Friday the person remained on top of the truck for three and a half hours, until Shell stop work at 7pm. All Shell traffic was blocked but local traffic was still able to pass on the other side of the road, aside from when gardaí rather arbitrarily claimed the entire road was blocked, turning local traffic around.

At a lock-on protest earlier in the week a garda was overheard giving orders to “shut the road down to local traffic, if they see a local in the lock-on they’ll be delighted,” apparently trying to stop local traffic from seeing one of their neighbours with an arm in the concrete lock-on.

At the protest on Friday gardaí were overheard explaining to drivers that protesters have the entire road shut down, when clearly traffic could pass and it was actually gardaí shutting the road down. Eventually the gardaí gave up blocking the whole road and resumed directing local traffic around the stopped lorry.

By 4.30pm a lot of locals had shown up with tea and snacks, and at least 20 people remained there for the early evening.  At 7pm the person got down from the top of the peat truck and walked away, escaping arrest.

Grainne Clancy continues, “Friday was great, but the possibilities of what we could do with a few more people is really exciting. Shell are only allowed to use one haulage route, and with us blocking it all the time they’ll hardly get any work done. Please come up to Mayo”

The Rossport Solidarity Camp is a welcoming base for anyone interested in learning more about the campaign or anyone interested in taking action against Shell. All are welcome at any time, come visit and see what it’s about for yourself. And taking action against shell doesn’t have to mean climbing on trucks or doing lock ons. Help is needed with taking photos and video, making dinner, building lock ons, chopping wood, and lots of other things it takes to keep the camp running smoothly.

The camp is located in a field in Aughoose, next to Aughoose Church (between Pullathomas and Bellanaboy).

To ring for directions, questions or to let us know you’re coming: 085.114.1170 or email: rossportsolidaritycamp[at]gmail[dot]com