Upcoming Events

Mayo | Miscellaneous

no events match your query!

New Events

Mayo

no events posted in last week

Blog Feeds

Public Inquiry
Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005

offsite link RTEs Sarah McInerney ? Fianna Fail supporter? Anthony

offsite link Joe Duffy is dishonest and untrustworthy Anthony

offsite link Robert Watt complaint: Time for decision by SIPO Anthony

offsite link RTE in breach of its own editorial principles Anthony

offsite link Waiting for SIPO Anthony

Public Inquiry >>

Human Rights in Ireland
A Blog About Human Rights

offsite link UN human rights chief calls for priority action ahead of climate summit Sat Oct 30, 2021 17:18 | Human Rights

offsite link 5 Year Anniversary Of Kem Ley?s Death Sun Jul 11, 2021 12:34 | Human Rights

offsite link Poor Living Conditions for Migrants in Southern Italy Mon Jan 18, 2021 10:14 | Human Rights

offsite link Right to Water Mon Aug 03, 2020 19:13 | Human Rights

offsite link Human Rights Fri Mar 20, 2020 16:33 | Human Rights

Human Rights in Ireland >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link News Round-Up Fri Mar 29, 2024 00:04 | Richard Eldred
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the virus and the vaccines, the ?climate emergency? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Women?s Team with Five Male Players Wins Football Competition After One Male Player ?Broke Opponent?... Thu Mar 28, 2024 19:30 | Will Jones
A women?s football competition has been branded misogynist after it was won by a team featuring five transgender players, amid accusations one had broken an opponent?s leg in two places.
The post Women’s Team with Five Male Players Wins Football Competition After One Male Player “Broke Opponent’s Leg” ? But Teams Who Refuse to Play Against Them Are Branded “Discriminatory” appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Further Evidence Gaza Casualty Numbers Are Fake Thu Mar 28, 2024 17:36 | Will Jones
The evidence that the Gaza casualty numbers from the Hamas-run Health Ministry (now over 32,000) are wildly inflated continues to mount. Mark Zlochin looks at what the proportions of male and female UNRWA workers tell us.
The post Further Evidence Gaza Casualty Numbers Are Fake appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Don?t Be Fooled by the ?Britain is Growing? Fairytales Thu Mar 28, 2024 15:22 | David Craig
Don't be fooled by the 'Britain is growing' fairytales, says David Craig. Any 'growth' is accounted for by the hike in the benefits bill and in civil servants' pay and a heap of other unproductive deficit spending.
The post Don’t Be Fooled by the ‘Britain is Growing’ Fairytales appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Climate: The Movie is a Perfect Cure for Climate Anxiety Thu Mar 28, 2024 13:00 | Toby Young
Climate Change: The Movie, the new film by Martin Durkin, should be shown at every school in the country to disabuse anxious young people of the idea that we're in the midst of a 'climate emergency'.
The post Climate: The Movie is a Perfect Cure for Climate Anxiety appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Moscow attack reminds us of the links between Islamists and Kiev's fundamentalis... Tue Mar 26, 2024 06:57 | en

offsite link Failure to assist a people in danger of genocide, by Hassan Hamadé Tue Mar 26, 2024 06:32 | en

offsite link Yugoslavia March 24, 1999 The Founding War of the New Nato, by Manlio Dinucci Sun Mar 24, 2024 05:15 | en

offsite link France opposes Russian Korean-style peace project in Ukraine Sat Mar 23, 2024 11:11 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N°79 Fri Mar 22, 2024 11:40 | en

Voltaire Network >>

Shell humbled as protestors disrupt arrival of the Tunnel Boring Machine

category mayo | miscellaneous | news report author Tuesday July 31, 2012 14:12author by v. tired camper - Rossport Solidarity Campauthor email rossportsolidaritycamp at gmail dot com Report this post to the editors

The last twelve plus hours saw protesters in Erris take on one of the largest Gardai operations Ireland has seen in some time – and ran rings around it. The mammoth operation saw hundreds of Gardai and IRMS security trying to escort the tunnel boring machine [TBM] to Aghoos. Yet Shell to Sea campaigners managed, in separate incidents, two lock-ons and used a car to blockade a bridge on the route of the TBM.

Following on from Sunday night's discovery of the arrival of the TBM into Dublin Port (see http://www.indymedia.ie/article/102198 & http://www.wsm.ie/c/garda-deployed-protect-shells-machi...eland ), protesters from Sligo met it at its overnight resting place, while others mobilised with people coming from across the country. We were told that there would be an armed response unit and other pieces would be joining the convey, having come in from Killybegs and Belfast.

Despite short notice a call out for a protest at Ballina 9pm, Monday night, was quickly picked up and spread. Local radio stations spread the word, and the sixty or so protesters were joined by many from Ballina and surrounding areas – some to see the TBM itself, but often offering support as well.

Banners were held calling for an end to Shell's occupying army, pointing out that not only were Shell colonizing Erris for its own needs, not and they were doing it with the connivance of the Irish state – who had supplied armed Gardai to add to their many insults. There were many plain-clothes cops circling around, some of them displaying remarkable faithfulness to 1970s stereotypes...

Just after midnight the first of the lock-ons went into place outside of Crossmolina. Despite a strong Gardai presence in this town, it caught them completely on the hop. The convoy was halted on the outskirts of Ballina, with the Sligo road being blocked by Gardai, while the public order team raced to deal with the lock-on. Protesters and others from Ballina attempted to reach the convoy but were turned back.

The lock-on lasted a little under an hour with two arrested. Reaction from the Gardai, never the most pleasant from the public order unit's cutting team of Butler and Gill was sourer than usual.

Protesters, undeterred, left Ballina and regrouped at Bellacorrick. After a few hours wait, topping ourselves up with refreshments, the convoy came into sight (4.30am). One well known local campaigner promptly blocked the bridge with her van, parking it diagonally across a narrow spot bringing things once again to a halt. Yet again despite there being several van loads of Gardai with us.

A tractor from Carey's Tool and Plant Hire of Bangor (097-83018 / 086-8236018) was brought up to haul it out – the company are well known for doing this for Shell over the years. Resistance was put up by the 30 or so protesters there, leading to a battle for the bridge. Though overwhelmed several times over by Gardai numbers, it took them time to clear us out of the way, kettling us next to the old pub. It was easy to see that it was starting to affect them.

Just as that was finishing and the convoy was on its way again, later than ever, news came through that a second lock-on was in place on the Bangor road (6am). Cue enraged Gardai as the carefully planned operation to move the TBM became farcical. Another hours worth of delay with another two arrests.

The whole of the surrounding area was sealed off, though some protester vehicles managed to get back to camp to the great irritation of local Gardai. To top it off, the TBM, now many hours later than it should have been, was unable to make the turning at Aghoos which would take it down to its final resting place. Thus forcing it to go to Glenamoy in order to turn and try again.

Where it promptly got stuck at 8am. One local couple were told to park their van up in a specific place by Gardai. Who then said they that was wrong and dragged it away to a new place. Where the turning truck crashed into it... adding insult to all of this, the l van driver was assaulted by Gardai. Then got stuck as the road began to cave in under the weight of the 162 ton segment; the driver refused to get back into the truck in case it toppled down the side of the embankment.

Meanwhile the tailbacks grew. Drivers, understandably irate irate drivers were threatened with arrested; an individual on McGrath's truck on their way to dialysis was sent home.

As it stands, the trucks are still there, one tied to the other to stop it slipping more. For a good image see http://www.shelltosea.com/sites/default/files/images/TB...y.jpg The main road to Rossport is cut off and might be for the foreseeable future as they try to find solutions. Word is that cranes might be brought in, but they come with their own sets of problems. The rain has finally started. We will wait and see, and probably have a few good laughs. The TBM, offensively, has been named Fionnuala from the Children of Lir, and like that legend may it be stuck there for 300 years...

It is fair to say people here are pleased. At short notice as great response was organised and the multi-million euro operation made a mockery off. Shell and the Irish state thought they were going to sneak the TBM in under everyone's noses. Instead they got a rapidly mobilised set of protests that used it to bring the campaign message to people who had not encountered it before. The farce it became was given the airtime it deserved, Shell's dirty secretly received a public washing. It was really spiriting to learn that a group of young lads had come down from Sligo to oppose it, having only just heard about it on the radio.

We thought that at best it would be highly symbolic, we never thought that we could make such a laughing stock of a multi-million euro operation. The icing on the cake though, came from Shell. The farce at Glenamoy shows them up for what they were. If they cant, with all that planning, get the TBM in, how can there be any trust that they can run the pipeline safely. As one sleep-deprived but cheerful camper said, if they cant even get the tunnel boring machine turned on the road, how the hell are they going to get it up the estuary...

Some press round up & images
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0731/....html
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0731/...itter
http://photos.independent.ie/gallery/Shell_to_Sea_prote...wxcpa
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/shell-to-sea-pr....html

Related Link: http://www.rossportsolidaritycamp.org
author by Artpublication date Tue Jul 31, 2012 22:43author address author phone Report this post to the editors

The thing from outer space will need lots of power, in fact an electric substation will be required to power the TBM. They could bring in a massive generator to supply the 2000 horse power motors, either way its all very vunerable. Think of the indians, 650 million of them without power and you have the answer.

author by W. Finnertypublication date Wed Aug 01, 2012 10:01author address author phone Report this post to the editors

The Republic of Ireland has ratified the Aarhus Convention Agreement!!

I only found out about this (by accident while looking for something else) earlier today.

As can be seen at http://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREAT...ng=en -- under "Ireland", which means the "Republic of Ireland" in practice -- the ratification happened on 20 Jun 2012.

Allowing for the fact that there is nothing listed (by the Republic of Ireland or "Ireland" as the the United Nations have listed it) in the "Declarations and Reservations" Section at the above UN www address, this ratification is (in my opinion) -- potentially -- an extremely important event: provided sufficiently large numbers of people in local communities familiarise themselves with the text of what is arguably the most important "human rights/environmental agreement" ever produced.

The full text of this "CONVENTION ON ACCESS TO INFORMATION, PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN DECISION-MAKING AND ACCESS TO JUSTICE IN ENVIRONMENTAL MATTERS" can be viewed at:
http://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/env/pp/documents/cep...e.pdf

More general information relating to the Republic of Ireland's 14 year struggle to get to this stage (Aarhus Convention Ratification, that is) can be found via the following link: http://tinyurl.com/cstpe4y

Related Link:
http://www.humanrightsireland.com

author by Jose T. Jacksonpublication date Thu Apr 11, 2013 18:49author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Another Shell truck has got stuck. It is again believed that the truck, which has Dutch registration plates, was delivering parts of the Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) for Shell. The truck is currently stuck at Briska, between Bangor and Bellacorick.

 
© 2001-2024 Independent Media Centre Ireland. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by Independent Media Centre Ireland. Disclaimer | Privacy