Rossport Five: Dublin Demonstration

national | rights, freedoms and repression | news report Tuesday July 05, 2005 12:02 by Shell To Sea - Shell To Sea

Wednesday July 6th, 7.30 Parnell Square

On Wednesday night, July 6th, a major demonstration will take place in Dublin to call for the release of the Rossport Five who have been imprisoned because of Shell.

The men, James Brendan Philbin, Phillip and Vincent McGrath, Willie Corduff and Micheal O Seighin, have been committed to prison indefinitely until they ‘purge their contempt’. The demonstration will assemble at 7.30 from Parnell Square. Speakers at the demonstration include: Gerry Cowley Independent TD for Mayo; a relative of one of the prisoners, Sister Majella McCarron, campaigner against Shell in Nigeria; Ola Badogun, Nigerian journalist and Maura Harrington, Shell to Sea.
Maura Harrington from Shell to Sea said,
‘It is a disgrace that five Irish citizens should be sent to prison at the behest of a giant multi-national. More than a hundred years ago, Mayo farmers had to resist landlordism but today we face a new form of corporate landlordism. Shell is endangering the safety of the people of Erris and destroying the natural environment to further its profits. At the Bord Pleanala hearings it was admitted that by processing the gas inshore, the company will save €360 million in capital costs and reduce its operating costs by 40 percent a year.[i] By processing the gas offshore, it could reduce the risks to the environment and the people of the area.
‘The imprisonment of the five men has highlighted to the Irish people as a whole the scale of the robbery of our natural resources. There is no benefit to the Irish people from extraction of gas of our coast as we still have to pay for the gas at commercial prices. The corporation tax rate on oil and gas production is only 25 percent which is the lowest in the world and the companies pay no royalties. The companies are also allowed to write off all costs going back for 25 years. In addition, Bord Gais is building a special pipeline to connect the Corrib field to the national grid for €200 million.
The five men should be immediately released and the Irish public should demand that their government reverses its policy of giving away our natural resources.
Issued by: Shell to Sea
For more details phone Maura Harrington 087 9591474 or 09786781