The tunnel boring machine(TBM) planned to tunnel under Sruwadducon Bay has been named ‘Fionnuala’ after one of the children of Lir. In the story the 4 children of Lir are turned into swans for 900 years by their jealous step-mother. They spend their last 300 years in the seas off North Mayo. ‘Fionnuala the TBM’ is 140 m long and weighs almost 500 tonnes.  It is painted with the Mayo colours and is to be transported to Erris for early next summer. Shell plan to bore a 4.5 m diameter 4.9 km tunnel up Sruwadducon bay. This is Shell’s gift to Sruwadducon - ‘bod nimhneach an ghaill dhaill’  (the poisonous penis of the bitter and the blind ). ... read full story / add a comment

The current 'Gulf Spill' is only one of scores of such disasters in recent decades. The same pattern of reckless failures; drip release of information; cover-up and collusion between operators and statutory agencies is evident throughout. Protesters are invariably vilified or criminalized so that attention may be directed away from the really criminal irresponsibility. Read the following quotes from highly credible sources and remember Pat's 100 days in jail today. ... read full story / add a comment

Don't get stuck into a fake discourse of humanitarian emergency - Slavoj Zizek. ... read full story / add a comment

Today’s publication of An Bord Pleanala’s ruling (4 page statement) amounts to a rejection of the Corrib Pipeline application. ... read full story / add a comment

Corrib onshore gas pipeline application (An Bord Pleanala ref. 16 GA 0004, 16 DA 0004)

19th May – 25th June 2009

Produced by Pobal Chill Chomain
July 2009

The attached document comprises the majority of questioning put to the applicant (Shell E&P Ireland Ltd) by An Bord Pleanala, and includes a summary of the verbal responses given (NOTE: questions from Thursday June 11th not included).

This text is compiled from handwritten notes and should be read only as a guide to the hearing, in conjunction with the application particulars, Environmental Impact Statement, accompanying drawings and the various Briefs of Evidence and supplementary documents. ... read full story / add a comment

Title V, Solidarity Clause, Article 188R, Page 132 Lisbon Treaty.
1. The Union and its Member States shall act jointly in a spirit of solidarity if a Member State is the object of a terrorist attack or the victim of a natural or man-made disaster. The Union shall mobilise all the instruments at its disposal, including the military resources made available by the Member States, to: assist a Member State in its territory, at the request of its political authorities, in the event of a terrorist attack; ... read full story / add a comment

In June of 2009 we the people of Erris will have a rare opportunity to give our oponion on issues which are of concern to us, I suggest it is time for some of our local defenders to give us people of Erris a chance to give them a mandate to speak on our behalf! ... read full story / add a comment

We urgently need a holistic approach to mental health and well being in Ireland. Recent research findings of the Health Research Board revealed that of the almost 2,500 drug related deaths in the past eight years, prescription tranquillisers such as benzodiazepines were involved in more deaths than any other drug, legal or illegal. ... read full story / add a comment

Let’s plant trees in Erris. Let’s plant a f**k load of trees in Erris. Let’s plant enough trees to balance out any past and future damage done by Shell or other invaders and indeed by ourselves, for we are all part of the same fossil fuel based economy with our cars, our boats, our flights abroad, our central heating and our food from far away, and given this maybe it’s not enough to fight against the system that left us with no choice but to be part of it, perhaps it falls to us to create something different, to demonstrate our commitment to another reality and to get our own bodies involved in the building of it. ... read full story / add a comment

I write this letter to you the Fishermen of Erris, to your association, and to you all as individuals, and as men, in the light of Shell ‘intransigence‘, as you put it, and the arrival of Shell’s pipe-laying ship ‘the Solitaire’ off our shores.

It seems Shell have hit a right nerve with you guys and you’re very correct to be reacting with the defiance you’re adopting … again and at this time.

I’m sure you’re considering certain legal action to protect your fishing rights in Broadhaven Bay and beyond, and very good grounds indeed you have to do that, and succeed. But I wouldn’t be relying on that alone, if things don’t work out like!

If the law makers are making laws for Shell and Shell only, those ‘laws’ should be disobeyed in any case.

And we’re all well very aware of some of the bold and important stances you’ve already taken in the part you play in the hard fight against Shell and the Irish Government for the protection of Erris, it’s families, communities and it’s environment on and off shore. ... read full story / add a comment

Shell to Sea is currently drawing persistent attention to the flouting of EU/ Irish law in relation to the Wildlife Act of 1985 amended in 1995. It received statutory significance through its signing by the then, Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht, Michael D Higgins ... read full story / add a comment

Shell recently launched another cynical attempt to buy off opposition to their Corrib Gas project by offering grants to community groups that will be closest to Bellanaboy and their proposed raw gas pipeline. ... read full story / add a comment

People in Erris and around the world are puzzled by the resemblance of the new Garda Superintendent in Belmullet with "Johnny Sack" Sacramoni from the Sopranos Television programme.

http://www.hbo.com/sopranos/cast/character/johnny_sack....shtml

http://www.mayonews.ie/index.php?option=com_content&tas...id=38

Locals have speculated that the two may be related, or even whether the actor Vince Curatola has been hired by Mayo Gardaí to portray a heavy-handed police officer. Recent gangster tactics seen in Erris may indicate that the actor has taken his role too far. ... read full story / add a comment

Questions must be asked about the State's attitude to the use of a security firm at Shell's Bellanaboy site. ... read full story / add a comment

The latest Irish Times online Head2Head poll concerned itself with the Corrib gas controversy in North Mayo, and asked the following question:

Is Shell's Corrib Gas project good for the local community?

The result came in as a resounding NO, with 84% believing the project as proposed is bad for the local community, with less than 1 in 6 agreeing it was good for the area. ... read full story / add a comment

Just a note that the song I used over the images was written by Buffy Saint Marie and referrs to the Native Indian land and Energy protests in North America. ... read full story / add a comment

“The State guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate the personal rights of the citizen”. Constitution of Ireland - Bunreacht na h-Eireann, Article 40.3.1.

The wide-spread and systematic corruption of Gardaí that has been exposed in this country might lead us to believe that we should be entering a new era of accountability. No, far from it, the opposite is true. That new era began last October 2006 and continues now with the practical ongoing training and conditioning of hundreds of Gardaí at Bellanaboy, to the use of violence over the rule of law.

In that context of institutionalised Garda violence, I‘d hope that this article could go some way in empowering you to adopt the policy of:

Never cooperating with the Gardaí unless ...
1) You have been informed of a reason why they suspect you of committing an offence,
or
2) You are being assaulted by them and/or threatened with fear for your personal safety or your life. ... read full story / add a comment

Five men from the village of Rossport, Co.Mayo, were jailed when they refused to stop resisting workers from Shell who had been awarded a Compulsory Acquisition Order to put a high-pressure gas pipeline through their land. They became national heros of a fast-growing campaign to defy the multi-nationals and their government backers and make them build their gas refinery at sea. This was the Shell to Sea campaign and this book tells the story of 'The Rossport 5' in their own words. ... read full story / add a comment

Give me the reason ... read full story / add a comment

This report briefly explains what happened at Bellanaboy on the anniversary of the hanging of Ken Saro-Wiwa - with a few comments on the whole issue from the observer's point of view and a few pictures. ... read full story / add a comment