Many of us will have heard of Shell to Sea and Rossport Solidarity Camp by now. We have seen fleeting glimpses of this proud community and their fight to safeguard their health, safety, livelihood and environment. We have seen stories of decent local people being jailed for refusing to cooperate with the destruction of their community. We have heard accusations and counter accusations regarding the sinking of a fishing trawler and stolen diesel. We have seen Micheal D Higgins, later to become our proud president, praising the actions of this campaign as essential to democracy. Less than a week later we saw the infamous baton charge by hoodlum gardai against peaceful demonstrators trying to protect their community and more recently, the threats, by gardai, to rape members of the camp.
I was shocked to realise that this struggle has been going on for eleven years.
Having read an article recently on royaldutchshellplc.com regarding an environmental disaster involving the release of untreated effluent into the bay and breaches in building regulations at the Shell compound in mayo, I was moved to join them in their struggle. I had heard about a day of Solidarity that is a regular thing at the camp, and decided to go to the beautiful county of Mayo to offer my support.
Posted Date:
17 January 2012