Protest in support of Maura Harrington at the Norwegian Embassy, Dublin

March 26th 2009

A letter was handed in to the Norwegian Ambassador to Ireland at the Norwegian Embassy on Molesorth Street in Dublin yesterday. Norway has a large stake in the disputed and controversial Corrib gas scheme, despite the state company StatoilHydro, having a supposed commitment to ethcial behaviour.
The letter was written by Maura's husband, Naoise, and he was accompanied by their daughter and supporters from various political backgrounds and a number of well wishers.

Dear Ambassador,

I write to bring to your attention the situation regarding my wife, Maura Harrington who is currently imprisoned in Dublin. She was sentenced to 28 days in jail for an incident during a protest on June 11th 2007 when Shell contractors were aided by members of the Garda Siochána in attempting to access private land against the wishes of the landowner. Maura is alleged to have struck one of the gardaí, who was uninjured, but described himself as “humiliated”.

I hope you can appraise your government of the situation, in which ordinary people (my wife is a retired schoolteacher) are being criminalised and imprisoned for their resistance to the scheme to install a high pressure production pipeline across an unstable bog landscape through a residential area, against the wishes of the local community. The Norwegian people are implicated in this scheme through the involvement of the state company StatoilHydro.

As you know, StatoilHydro has ownership in the Corrib gas field with a 36.5% interest.

The CEO of StatoilHydro recently said: “We want to be recognised as a company that combines high performance with high integrity.”

The U.S. human rights group, Global Community Monitor, did an in-depth study of the policing of the protests in Mayo. They found:
"The situation in County Mayo arising from the Royal Dutch Shell pipeline and on-shore refinery has already resulted in serious injury, loss of trust in the rule of law and the Gardaí and disruption to the culture and values of the area."

I wish to point out the contrast between the company’s stated aim for ethical activity, and the implication of StatoilHydro, and by extension Norway, with human rights abuses in Ireland.

Yours sincerely,

Naoise Ó Mongáin