On Monday morning, October ninth, from 6.30 a.m. onwards two hundred protesters gathered for a sit down blockade on the “Shell highway” in north-west Mayo.
This is a road which was widened and re-surfaced by the local government for Shell contractors to use to access the refinery construction site in Ballinaboy.
The blockade was cleared by the police and was formed again and was cleared again and was formed again, several times over 3 hours. Some protestors were hit by the police, who were starting to loose their cool and feel under pressure as things were not going their way. This received prominent coverage on T.V. news, but little coverage in the papers.
Shell gained control over the Ballinaboy refinery site for the first time since July 2005 on Tuesday October 3rd, when a force of two hundred police bussed in from all over the country to cut a way through the Shell to Sea picket lines.
Since then there have been solidarity actions in the major Irish cities, including protests at Shell and Statoil filling stations, and at police stations.