Stop Shell's peat removal!

mayo | environment | feature

Tuesday November 29, 2011 12:16

by j debender - Rossport Solidarity Camp

A field in Aughoose, between Pullathomas and Bellanaboy

085 114 1170

Come up to Mayo, people are needed

Standing on the Peat truck outside the refinery

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-b...upted

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

Early morning truck blockade

Quarry trucks all blocked up

Afternoon truck-sit

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Comments (5 of 5)

you guys rock

by matilda

Mon Nov 28, 2011 23:22

keep it up, fair play to everyone.

Corrib

by James

Thu Dec 01, 2011 12:35

Great work, very impressed. Keep it up.

How is this helping anyone?

by Drosera rotundifolia - The Land of sensible human beings

Sat Dec 03, 2011 20:21

So how exactly is this good? What exactly is it going to achieve? What is the battle you are trying to win with this behaviour? Do any of you know what you are protesting against anymore? This is what you spend your time doing when there are unbelieveable acts of environmental destruction which is completely unpoliced all around Ireland. What about the destruction of our protected national habitats daily from the very people who should be protecting them....I think Shell to Sea have completely lost sight of their real aims.

Come down to Erris.....

by Granny Weatherwax - S2S

Sat Dec 03, 2011 20:58

....and you might find out, instead of pontificating behind a computer keyboard. If you don't know what this is about by now,

you shouldn't be representing yourself as someone who has concerns about the environment. Or you might be a

member of the EPA or Taisce, both of which will talk the talk then go belly up when the big calls have to be made.

No choice-No consent.

by ailis

Wed Dec 07, 2011 11:58

When thousands of tons of peat are being moved from an environmentally sensitive area by Royal Dutch Shell

at a time when turf cutters are banned from cutting turf for domestic use people are bound to question EU laws

which favour the multinationals.

The right to protest to protect our environment which includes our vital water supply (over 10000 homes),the air we

breathe,the basic human right to live in one,s home without fear of death from explosion,these are our human

and civil rights WE will protect them.We can only judge SHELL by its apalling record of abuses worldwide in all these

areas.

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Stop Shell's peat removal!

Comments (5 of 5)