Mayo County Council steal caravan from Rossport Solidarity Camp at 3am

mayo | crime and justice | news report Thursday July 21, 2011 12:59 by Bob - Rossport Solidarity Camp

Early Thursday morning at 3am Mayo County Council illegally removed a caravan from private property in Aughoose, opposite Shell's temporary compound. People from the Rossport Solidarity Camp were woken by the noise and ran down to the road in pyjamas to find their caravan being loaded onto a flatbed trailer. The gardaí present said to "take it up with the County Council" if there was a problem. When questioned as to why they were doing it at 3am if the removal of the caravan was lawful, there was no response.

A report of the theft has been made to the Belmullet Garda station. There was no previous notice given indicating that there was any reason for the caravan to be moved. Con Coughlan from the Camp said, "They came around like a thief in the night. It feels to us like it is petty revenge for yesterday.”

This bizarre midnight theft happened following a day of action at the Bord na Móna site in Srahmore near Bangor, Co. Mayo. A total of about 20 people from the local area and supporters from the Rossport Solidarity Camp entered the site and spent over 7 hours stopping work. People split up into small groups, some blocking gates and others climbing under or on top of trucks in what was considered by participants to be a very effective and successful action. There were no arrests. Gardaí were overheard telling each other that they need to "tighten up" and make it clear that they are not there to do Shell's work for them.

Con Coughlan continued, “But it is clear to us that the council and police are happy to collude in breaking the law. The whole thing is blatantly dodgy. It is clear that the police and the council are more interested in upholding Shell's interest than the law. It seems corruption stretches right down to the bottom.”

The work currently happening at the Bord na Móna site is to extend the road network in preparation for the storage of 125,000 tonnes of peat to be removed from Shell's Aughoose site. This mass peat removal is the next step before the remainder of the controversial pipeline connecting up Bellinaboy refinery to the Corrib gas field is put in place. The Bord na Móna site has been essentially shut down three days in a row due to protests.