Bellanaboy, Community Under Siege - Day 11.

mayo | environment | news report Friday October 13, 2006 17:30 by Bob & Niall - Rossport Solidarity Camp. rossportsolidaritycamp at gmail dot com

“I only talk to people I can trust”. Supt. Joe Gannon refuses to hear protestors’ complaints.

This morning’s protest at the proposed gas refinery site at Bellanaboy, Co Mayo saw another Shell to Sea campaigner injured by over enthusiastic police. Local schoolteacher Maura Harrington, an outspoken opponent of the Corrib project since the beginning was taken to Castlebar hospital by ambulance shortly after 8am today.

Maura Harrington gets bounced by a herd of Shell’s cops, and Garda GW163 specifically …

As the convoy of vehicles approached the junction between the haulage route for the site and the main road, Maura was among a small group who came forward to block their path. A line of Gardai hurried forward to contain them and she was pushed back, falling over and banging her head on the road. Eyewitness accounts say that she received a two-handed shove from a Garda. She was examined by Dr Jerry Cowley where she lay; he expressed the opinion that she may have incurred a concussion and that she had received a hard knock to the back of the neck and head. The site ambulance was called out by Gardai but Mrs Harrington refused to go on the basis that it was a private ambulance paid for by Shell and she did not want to avail of it. This ambulance had passed ten minutes before and gone up to the site. It was approximately 30 minutes before an ambulance arrived from Castlebar, during which time Maura remained immobile on the ground covered by coats and blankets.

The crowd then marched from the junction to the gates, carrying the crosses bearing the names of the Ogoni Nine which were erected across from the gates of the site on the anniversary of their execution last year. The parallels between the abuses and destruction in Nigeria and the worsening situation in Mayo are being made increasingly obvious by the continuing deployment of state police as a private army.

Some members of the police are particularly comfortable with expressing their contempt for the campaigners; Garda Sgt MY28 Dermot Butler told local resident PJ Moran “I’ll shut your fuckin’ mouth for you, I’ve got your number, I’ll take you out of it”.

… cracking her head off the tarmac.