The Occupation of Bellanaboy.

mayo | environment | news report Tuesday October 03, 2006 19:04 by Eve, Bob and Niall. - Rossport Soldarity Camp / Shell to Sea. rossportsolidaritycamp at gmail dot com

"This is no longer a public road, we own it now". Garda LM261

The myth of Shell’s newfound commitment to achieving “local consent” before proceeding with the Corrib gas project was utterly debunked this morning, as an army of around 200 police forcibly removed Shell to Sea protesters from their picket at the proposed Bellanaboy Corrib Gas refinery site. This underlines Shell’s disregard for the concerns of the majority of people in Mayo and reinforces the Shell to Sea prediction that the only way this project can go ahead is by the use of force. Clearly the state is more than willing to lend its strength to Shell to be used against the people it supposedly serves.

Amid reports that Shell would attempt to recommence work supported by significant numbers of police, Shell to Sea campaigners maintained their picket of the proposed refinery site overnight. Around three o’clock in the morning Gardai began to move into the Bellanaboy area in coaches. Around 200 Gardaí were transported to the site in coaches and vans and proceeded to swarm and occupy the whole area.

They erected blocks on the roads leading to the protest site and began the task of unloading crowd control barriers that were transported courtesy of local business man T.J. Carey. Some time before 5am Gardaí began forcibly removing cars that were parked near the entrance to the site. After offering owners an opportunity to remove their vehicles, cars were towed away using a tractor. At least one car was visibly damaged by the clumsy attempts of ‘car removal by tractor’. Other cars pulled while in gear and with the hand-brakes on, await inspection by mechanics for unseen damage.

At about 5am Shell to Sea protesters gathered in front of the gates of the refinery faced by line of Gardaí, The police assembled crowd control barriers on either side of the refinery entrance creating two corrals. Soon after at approximately 5:20am site security (Brenden Gilmore Security) began the process of changing shifts. Shell to Sea has always allowed site security to enter and exit the site unimpeded. Despite this, Gardaí felt it necessary to forcibly form a corridor through the crowd of protesters to facilitate the security change over. Two lines of police pushed their way into the protesters linking arms and aggressively pushing campaigners to the side and squashing the crowd against a line of parked cars to either side. One young woman, Mary Coyle aged 20, was injured in the crush as a police officer’s arms choked against her neck. She suffered neck abrasions and deep shock. She was attended to at the site by Dr Jerry Cowley TD, who despite informing the police at the road-block that he was a doctor answering a call for medical assistance, was refused permission to drive his car to the site and had to walk hundreds of yards carrying his medical bags while Mary sat gasping for breath on the ground and in a car at the site. After waiting for almost an hour in distress an ambulance arrived at 6:20 to take her to hospital for further treatment.

As the ambulance pulled off through the crowds of luminous coated cops, Shell to Sea campaigners who were gathered at the gate tightened in formation. Garda Supt. Joe Gannon approached the crowd and requested that protesters move to behind the barriers from where they could exercise their ‘right to protest’. After it became apparent that campaigners were unlikely to acquiesce he then asked that ‘children, elderly people and females’ move to the back of the crowd in light of possible ‘confrontation’. Protesters immediately sat down in front of the gates. Supt. Gannon then ordered in ‘the lifting squad’ and one by one protesters were carried off and deposited behind the crowd control barriers.

Once all protesters had been deposited into the fenced off corrals the police completed the task of towing away cars which were blocking the entrance to the site. Around 7:45am a procession of minibuses, jeeps and cars carrying the workers entered the site, met by disapproving shouts from the crowd. This was swiftly followed by a series of flatbed trucks carrying diggers and work equipment. By 8:20 campaigners were released from the corrals.

Today’s protest was entirely peaceful on behalf of Shell to Sea. The only violence came from Shell’s state provided security. The aggressive way in which they facilitated the change over of site security was evidently calculated to provoke a response from protesters. The injury and subsequent hospitalisation of one young woman in the fracas was not the only incident of police brutality this morning. Many commented on their rough handling by the ‘lifting squad’ as they were carried and dragged away from the refinery gates. Philip McGrath sustained a broken finger as he was wrenched from a seated position and carried to behind the barriers. TD Jerry Cowley was very vocal in his criticisms of garda behaviour and complained of being manhandled by the police despite his position as an elected public representative.

In a radio debate today between Shell’s PR man John Egan and Shell to Sea’s spokesperson Mark Garavan, the point was clearly made that the strong arm tactics exemplified by Shell and An Garda Siochana this morning merely emphasise the continuing disregard for public opinion. A door-to-door survey carried out by campaigners found that the overwhelming majority of residents of the Erris region support Shell to Sea, a finding backed by a recent TG4 poll, which showed 61% support across Mayo for the campaign. Towards the end of the debate, Egan made an inference that the door-to-door canvas had been an intimidation exercise; when challenged by Garavan he insisted that he had not meant to allege criminality and apologised. Mark Garavan remarked on the nature of John Egan’s comments as setting a new low in the standard of media argument.

Egan also commented on the number of English accents he had heard on the picket-line earlier in the morning, as though being in possession of an English accent disqualifies one from having a say on this matter although not as if one’s surname is Pyle, evidently. This is a weak attack on people from outside the area who have flocked to offer their support, which has proved more valuable to the people of Erris than the illusory benefits offered by Shell.

Earlier in the summer Shell announced their intention to recommence work in September, an aspiration which they failed to realise. For the month of September and for over fifteen months Shell have been unable to work due to constant pickets by Shell to Sea. This mornings events are not a defeat. Shell’s entrance to the site was only made possible by the deployment of large-scale force courtesy of the state. The only way in which Shell will be able to build this refinery is by the constant deployment of this same state force. It will necessitate the permanent occupation of the Bellanaboy area by hundreds of Gardaí for the next two to three years, which Shell say would take to build the refinery. It is Shell to Sea's firm intention to continue and maintain the resistance at Bellanaboy. While the police are following orders, this community is fighting for its very existence.