End Shell law in Mayo - Justice for Pat O'Donnell

national | rights, freedoms and repression | event notice Thursday May 13, 2010 19:10 by DS2S - Dublin Shell to Sea

Dublin Shell to Sea protest - 5pm Friday 21st May - Shell HQ, 52 Lwr Leeson Street, Dublin 2

Pat O'Donnell - Political Hostage of Shell

On 21st May next Erris fisherman and Shell to Sea campaigner Pat O’Donnell will be spending his 100th day in prison. Pat’s alleged ‘crime’ was to stand up for the right of his community to live in peace and safety. For this he was sentenced to seven months in prison. This appalling injustice is the latest in a litany of civil rights abuses perpetrated against the small rural community in Erris, Co. Mayo. Shell law rules in Erris - Pat O’Donnell along with other activists such as Niall Harnett, who is currently serving a six month sentence in Castlerea prison, have been imprisoned at Shell’s behest.

For the past ten years that community has bravely resisted attempts by the Irish government and Shell, one of the world’s most powerful multinational oil corporations, to force a dangerous high pressure and odourless gas pipeline through their community. For daring to stand up for their rights, the people of Erris have been harassed, beaten, vilified and many, including Pat, have paid the price with their liberty.

The rights of the people of Ireland are being trampled on so that Shell can profit from natural resources that rightfully belong to the people of Ireland. An estimated €420 billion worth of oil and gas lie off the coast of Ireland - resources that could be used to fund our health, education, and welfare services.

Yet in an extraordinary act of political corruption Fianna Fáil gave away these resources to oil corporations. It is Shell alone, a company that declared €31 billion in profits last year, that will benefit from our oil and gas. This obscenity is occurring at the same time as the government slashes its way through our public services and pours billions of euro of our money into failed private banks.

It is time to shout stop! Shell to Sea demands justice for Pat O'Donnell and the immediate release of this brave and honourable man who merely seeks to uphold the rights of his community. While Pat languishes in a prison cell, the powerful friends of Fianna Fáil such as former Anglo Irish boss Seán Fitzpatrick, who mugged the people of Ireland for billions of euro, is at liberty to jet around the world on sunshine holidays. This is what the government calls justice! This is what a banana republic looks like.

Make your voice heard.

Demand an end to Shell law in Mayo.

Demand justice for Pat O’Donnell.

Join the Dublin Shell to Sea protest on 21st May at 5pm outside Shell HQ, 52 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2.