Dublin Shell to Sea protest 2pm Sat to build for 14th Sept blockade

national | miscellaneous | news report Friday September 07, 2007 19:38 by DS2S - Dublin Shell to Sea

Stop Shell's inland refinery before it's too late

"Stop the inland refinery before it's too late," is the message of a Dublin Shell to Sea protest in Dublin's O'Connell St at 2pm this Saturday, September 8th. Campaigners around Ireland are building towards a major sit-down protest at the proposed refinery site on September 14th.

Eamon Ryan: hasn't been seen on any Shell to Sea protests recently

Caoimhe Kerins of Dublin Shell to Sea said: "Shell have yet to start building the inland refinery. It's not too late to make them process at gas at Sea, as is done at Kinsale. Community opposition to the inland refinery is as strong as ever. "

"They haven't been given permission by the EPA to operate the refinery, yet they seem determined to steamroll ahead with the project despite massive local opposition."

Hundreds of campaigners from around Ireland will be travelling to Erris for a major sit-down blockade at the gates of Shell's proposed Bellanaboy refinery site on the morning of Friday 14th September to highlight the ongoing community campaign against the controversial Corrib gas development.

Cormac McMahon of Dublin Shell to Sea said: "We also want to remind the public that they will not benefit at all from the Corrib Gas project. Thanks to the extraordinary deal done with the oil and gas companies by Ray Burke in 1987, the Shell-led consortium will own 100 per cent of the gas that comes ashore. Bord Gais will have to bid for the gas, and pay full market prices for gas extracted from Irish waters."

"In other words, all the distress to the affected communities - the polluted drinking water, the garda brutality and intimidation, the risks associated with the high-pressure pipeline - it's all being suffered in the cause of the shareholders of Shell, Statoil and Marathon."

In recent months a number of blockades have held up work at the refinery site. These have included lock-ons, at which campaigners have locked themselves together or to vehicles. On other occasions work has been stopped when large groups of Shell to Sea campaigners have entered and occupied the proposed refinery site.

From October 2006, Shell's contractors removed several hundred thousand tonnes of peat from the proposed refinery site to a peat deposition site several miles away. In recent weeks, the company has started pouring cement in advance of the construction of the refinery.

Sit-down protest at Bellanaboy, 14th September:
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/83932

Bus from Dublin, 13th September:
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/83911