“We are ready for attack by the state. The mood here
is one of absolute determination. We in Erris havn’t
been attacked by the state since 1798, when the
redcoats were sent in after the French landed.”
- Micheál Ó Seighin, formerly imprisoned at the behest
of Shell, 9/02/06.

Erris is a remote area on Ireland’s western Atlantic
coast, in the county of Mayo.
It is quite a poor, sparsely populated area, subject
to a lack of local employment, and consequent
migration, as well as considerable state neglect.

Since 2000 there has been a project to build there an
unprecedented high-pressure gas pipeline and on shore
refinery, a development that has been stoutly resisted
every step of the way by many local residents.
Initially the consortium behind the plan was headed by
Enterprise Oil, in the spring of 2002 this company was
bought by Shell, the consortium also includes
Norwegian semi-state company Statoil and American
multi-national Marathon.

The on land part of the development beings with the
beachhead among an expanse of sand dunes called
Glengad, here the pipeline hits land, it then crosses
over a small part of the bay, to move up the far side
of the bay, alongside Rossport, later it crosses over
the narrow bay again, to go to the refinery site, in
what was a state forest plantation in Ballinaboy. So
there is a compound in Rossport, for building that
section of pipeline, a construction site in
Ballinaboy, and a cleared area in Glengad for a yet
unbuilt compound.

Spring 2005
This time last year the issues surrounding this
development were not well known nationally, indeed
even the existence of the development itself was not
well known.
The bulk of the opposition to date had been
concentrated on making formal objections in the
planning process, and after that issuing a legal
challenge to the planning decision in the High Court.
Certainly the impression I got on my first visits to
the area was that the official planning roundabout had
left people feeling defeated and demoralised.
Erris certainly wasn’t bedecked in anti-Shell placards
and banners and murals as it is now.

A stretch of small holdings in Rossport owned by
objectors to the development was Shell’s weak point.
In order to use this land Compulsory Acquisition
Orders (CAOs) were issued by the state, the first time
they were used in a private development, and in fact
legislation was changed so that CAOs could be used for
a gas pipeline.
A number of landowners along the route were pressured
into excepting a small amount of compensation in
return for going along with this, especially those
that owned shares in the commons, and therefore were
living some distance away from the proposed pipeline.
Others resisted. Residents who owned no land, or no
land earmarked for construction, were not consulted.
For instance the first communication from Shell
received by Vincent McGrath, whose home is actually
the closest to the route, was a notice that they
would be seeking his imprisonment.

Shell were refused access to the lands of objectors in
January and March and got a temporary injunction in
April on the basis that they were losing a lot of
money by not being able to start work

Summer 2005.
On the first weekend in June 2005 we held a
‘Solidarity Gathering’ in a field in Rossport, this
involved tours of the area, talks and music.
During the second day of this the national wing of
‘Shell to Sea’ was established, at least on a skeleton
basis, with a discussion around what could be done,
and with people volunteering to get things moving in
their home areas.
Essentially also arising out of this bank holiday
weekend, was the protest camp, aka Rossport Solidarity
Camp, in that relationships were made which later lead
in that direction.

A few weeks later there was another attempt at entry
onto the lands of the farmers resisting the pipeline
construction – this was the breaking of the injunction
for which the imprisonments were made.

A couple of days after this, on June 18th, the road
to the Rossport compound was blockaded by parking cars
on its verge, the road being so narrow heavy goods
vehicles cannot pass parked cars. A truck carrying
pipe was stuck between two lines of parked cars, one
line to its front and one to its rear.
This went on for 12 days 24 hours a day, with people
on site at all times. A similar episode had actually
occurred some weeks earlier, but then only for a
couple of hours, the removal of the truck in that case
having been negotiated.

During this time a number of significant things
happened. The vigil on the roadside became a focal
point in mobilising people locally, many of whom were
longstanding opponents of the development, but whom
had, up till this point, little opportunity to
practically oppose it. Meanwhile the call went out for
people to travel up to the area to act in support of
the struggle. The “camp” one might say, begins now,
though accommodation was actually in a house at this
point.
In response to all this a new injunction is issued,
dealing with interfering with traffic, and notice that
Shell would be seeking imprisonments were sent out to
five households in connection with the earlier
injunction.

On the 29th of June five men were taken to the High
Court in Dublin, Willie Corduff, Vincent McGrath,
Brendan Philbin, Philip McGrath, and Micheál Ó
Seighin, aka “The Rossport Five”, in what was at
attempt at intimidation, which was supposed to quell
opposition. This backfired when they refused to abide
by the court order forbidding them from refusing Shell
access to their farmlands and those of their
neighbours, and they were imprisoned.

At this point outraged mass picketing began at the two
main construction sites, the Ballinaboy refinery site,
and the Rossport compound, the mainstream media,
hitherto absent, made it into a big story, and the
national campaign mushroomed.
Shell announced a temporary ten day halt to work,
which, as picketing was maintained, turned into a
suspension for the rest of the year.
The Solitaire, the world’s largest pipelaying ship,
was to come in on the 15th of August, to lay the
off-shore section of pipeline, but, due to the fact
that local fishermen had mobilised at least 15 to 20
boats to exercise their fishing rights in its path,
Shell have been forced to temporarily shut down that
part of construction also.

Autumn/Winter 2005
On the 30th of September the prisoners were released
after Shell asked for the injunction to be lifted in
response to massive popular pressure.
At this time the camp disbanded, weather conditions
not permitting major building work, and the main
focus became on preparing for this year.

In the next months the state attempted to make a
compromise, or to mollify public opinion, depending on
which way you look at it, with public consultation
meetings, largely boycotted, an independent mediation
process between Shell and the Rossport Five, from
which the later withdrew citing state interference,
and a safety review, which campaigners criticised due
to the narrowness of its remit.

In addition in November an attempt to hook the
Rossport compound up to the national electricity grid
was prevented by a womens’ picket, and in January 2006
a visit by Shell’s ‘social responsibility’ committee
to Erris was gatecrashed.

Also over the winter Shell have claimed that they need
to access the Ballinaboy site to prevent pollutants
running off into rivers, technicians have been allowed
into the site to do this, monitored by picketers, and
pickets have been maintained in order that this work,
and no other, be done. However monitoring has revealed
that Shell have largely be negligent in this
environmental management, leading people to believe
that this was either testing the waters to see if they
could get away with resuming work, or an attempted
publicity stunt (e.g. “protestors prevent crucial
environmental protection” type headlines).

Latest news is a blockade of the Shell H.Q. in Dublin see:
 http://www.indymedia.ie/article/74329

and a Rossport Solidarity Camp tour of England and Scotland see:
 http://www.indymedia.ie/article/74287

Rossport Solidarity Camp:

The camp reopens on Saturday the 25th of February.
This year it will be positioned near the beachhead
where the pipeline hits land.
You can read more about the camp here:
 http://www.struggle.ws/rsc/ and here
 http://www.indymedia.ie/mayo
What can you do to help?
Well the number one thing that is needed, as always,
is people, people with a variety of skills and
experiences to contribute to a collective effort of
equals.
You can come for as long or as little as you like.
Also needed, as always is money, here is the camp bank
account details:

Name : Rossport Solidarity Camp
Account number : 24306733
Bank code(branch)NSC : 905299
Branch address : Belmullet, Co.Mayo.
IBAN No. : IE83 BOFI 9052 9924 3067 33
BIC No. : BOFIIE2D

Help with spreading the word is also very useful,
especially in regard to contacts outside Britain and
Ireland, particularly in Holland and Italy, as some of
the main contractors are based in those places (Sicim
in Italy, Tideway/Allseas in Holland).

You can contact the camp at:
rossportsolidaritycamp(at)gmail.com
Or by phone 00353 97 20944