[This article appears in the current issue of the Mayo Advertiser newspaper, published last Friday, 25th March 2011] ... read full story / add a comment

According to this week's Mayo News, former Garda Superintendent Pat Doyle has joined IRMS, the Kildare security firm with central European paramilitary links. ... read full story / add a comment

Just a year after Micheal Dwyer met his bloody end in Bolivia, we get a News update from Bolivia...

The news concerns our favourite LatAm fascist Branko Marinkovic, chickenshit multimillionaire and coupmonger who fled Bolivia after his racist plot failed... From inca kola news- Branko has left the building and is very unlikely to return (March 18 2010)
http://incakolanews.blogspot.com/2010/03/branko-has-lef....html

Ex-Aid Testifies that Marinkovic Financed Accused Terrorists

On March 17th, former Santa Cruz civic leader Branko Marinkovic’s longtime personal assistant and right-hand man for 14 years Juan Judelka confirmed that Marinkovic was financing a group called “La Torre” that is accused of terrorist conspiracy. Judelka declared under oath before prosec ... read full story / add a comment

The courts have recently become a very hotly contested arena in the conflict over Shell's imposition of their unsafe project on Erris. Charges and prosecutions have been coming thick and fast over the last year and a half, but they seem to be more about persecuting campaigners than any concept of justice, and recent weeks have shown a clear bias in the policing of protest. ... read full story / add a comment

According to a notice issued by Eamon Ryan's Department of Transport, work is to re start shortly on the Corrib Pipeline. The notice gives a rough outline of plans to survey the estuary, but makes no mention of Shell/Garda security compounds, increased garda and navy presence, dodgy security guards with cameras, and articles in the O'Reily press saying "we need the gas".

Maybe that's a different department... ... read full story / add a comment

The Shell manager who accepted the latest load of letters from objectors to the Shell project just last week turns out to be the son of a (former) Labour politician. A politician who always campaigned hard on Corrib, but on behalf of the multi-national, not his constituents.

So it was a bit of a surprise to see Jerry Cowley, wealthy Barrister and GP, and once supposedly a supporter of the Shell to Sea campaign, sign up for Labour yesterday. ... read full story / add a comment

The Mayo News carries a report that Rose Conway Walsh has condemned the imprisonment of Pat O'Donnell. The Erris fisherman has been jailed for seven months for supposedly obstructing a garda during an incident in which over sixty other people were involved. Many people have speculated that the gardaí picked on him becasue of his long track record of opposition to the Corrib Gas project.

The Sinn Féin Councillor also talks about the methods of documentary maker Gerry Gregg, calling his TV3 documentary she said had "done nothing but divide the community". ... read full story / add a comment

Nigerian rebels attack and raid oil facility in DELTA area. ... read full story / add a comment

An account of yesterdays (16/06/2009) action at the UK offices of Van Oord (operating dredgers in Broadhaven Bay) and in solidarity with the Rossport Solidarity Camp and the people of Erris in their long struggle against Shell. ... read full story / add a comment

Does Peter Murtagh have a relationship with the PR department of Shell? Do Conor Lally's "security cources" wear blue uniforms? Why has no one been charged with the break in on the Shell compound where someone supposedly started a digger and tore down a fence? Did anyone take a picture of this attack? Why did the security guards run away? How is that the security guard with the injured arm has never been named nor photographed? ... read full story / add a comment

Throughout the Corrib gas conflict there have been various offers and attempts at mediation. ... read full story / add a comment

Those good folks at Shell have made great attempts at becoming good neighbours down Belmullet way. Splashing out on local grants to community groups, and scholarships for local students, the intention is to undue [sic] some of the damage that was done to their reputation during the lengthy Rossport 5 dispute, and prepare for the laying of a high-pressure gas pipeline later this year.

Local fishermen in the area weren't too impressed to leam that someone had illegally tapped into an electricity supply at Ballyglass Pier, north of Belmullet. The electricity had been provided by Board lascaigh Mhara (BIM), the Irish Sea Fisheries Board so that a refrigerated container was on hand for fishing boats to keep their catch cool, until delivery could be organised. ... read full story / add a comment

The Mayo Echo reports today, that local fisherman using the refrigeration services provided by Bord Iascaigh Mhara at Ballyglass were amazed to find that the bill for electricity had rocketed from around 300 euro per quarter to nearly 6,000. Worried that the BIM service might be withdrawn, they investigated and found that someone had illegally hacked into the electricity supply and run up a huge bill.

And guess who was to blame?
... read full story / add a comment

Sometimes coincidences happen in a timely way, while at other times they appear to happen but are actually coordinated events.

On Monday, the Tánaiste Mary Coughlan announced that Facebook, the popular social networking site, was setting up its head office for Europe in Dublin. Since Facebook doesn't actually make anything, it will have a negligible effect on the economy, but it sends the right sort of signal. At the same time (around midday on Monday) the profile page for the Shell to Sea campaign was removed from Facebook.

Some Shell to Sea groups remain, but as anyone who uses Facebook will tell you, having a profile page is where the action is. Shell to Sea had a popular one, with lots of "friends" and activity on the page. It was very useful in spreading information about the campaign, especially outside Ireland.

So Mary Coughlan goes on the radio to talk about Facebook and how its arrival in Ireland sends a strong signal. At the same moment, the Shell to Sea page is removed. Coincidence? ... read full story / add a comment

Harry Barrett, Labour Party Rep in Mayo, writes glowingly about Sarah Palin in the current issue of the Mayo Advertiser.

"One of her first acts as newly elected governor of Alaska was to renegotiate a taxation deal with the Alaskan oil companies", he points out. ... read full story / add a comment

I've always fancied a brief chat with an official in an out of the way registry office, while some think it needs an Elvis impersonator in a church in a Las Vegas. Others like hotels, marquees, beaches in the Maldives, even on the wings of a plane- but I don't think anyone can beat closing a petrol station with your wedding vows.

They even used D-Locks on the pumps instead of rings!

Check out more pictues and details of the ceremony here : http://chriskasza.blogspot.com/2008/09/week-25-best-not....html ... read full story / add a comment

RTE are currently running an online poll ' Are the Gardai putting the interests of Shell ahead of the interests of the public by arresting the two fishermen?' on their news web page: http://www.rte.ie/news/index.html

It's not how clear what the final result will be, but so far it looks like a clear majority think the police are not the impartial force they should be. ... read full story / add a comment

There is a brief interview with Mayo fisherman Pat O'Donnell in this weeks An Phoblacht, which outlines the current situation with regard to the 26 county states's deployment of the navy against peaceful protesters, and fishermen going about their business.

Hopefully other political newspapers will follow the lead of Sinn Féin's weekly paper and feature articles on this issue. ... read full story / add a comment

According to Sunday's Daily Mail, Shell misled the experts who were tasked with assessing the company's planning application for the proposed onshore pipeline route.

Julie Fossitt, Senior Ecologist with the National Parks and Wildlife Services and author of the standard reference work "A Guide to Habitats in Ireland" asserted in a memo released under Freedom of Information legislation, that '‘key information was withheld from specialists whose opinions were included in the planning documents" and that ‘the project ecologists did not have access to key sections of the proposed pipeline route’.

... read full story / add a comment

Lorna Siggins in the Irish Times reports that Bord Pleanála has asked for extensive further information from Shell about their plan to install a production pipeline linking the offshore Corrib gas field with the refinery they are trying to build nine kilometres inland.

Many people fear that the planning procedure will be a simple "rubber stamp" exercise, since the original planning decision that the project was unsuitable for the area was overturned by the planning board on appeal. Since then, Shell has been supported at every step by all arms of the government, despite the fact that the project clearly lacks local consent. ... read full story / add a comment