PeaceNews  
< for nonviolent revolution    
 >
 
2482 frontpage

 
You are here: Frontpage > Issues > 2482 >
-
  Over the past six years, the inhabitants of a remote corner of Ireland have been fightingone of the world's largest companies. They have forged links with other communities in similar struggles around the world and, despite post-colonialism, are fighting once morefor their land and way of life. Camilla Cancantata reflects on the fossil fuel industry and communities in crisis.

Reflections on Rossport

  • Camilla Cancantata
    Last year myself and filmmaker Mayyasa Al-Malazi spent several weeks interviewing and filming people involved in the Shell to Sea campaign, including the Rossport Solidarity Camp, in the region of Erris, county Mayo, south-west Ireland. We got to know and love the area and had the privilege of being welcomed by a warm and open-hearted local community, who until recently led quite settled and tranquil lives. ("We used to be so boring..." they laugh,"Now the telephone hardly stops ringing.")
    History is repeating itself with a twist. It was here that Michael Davitt founded the Land League and began the campaign against rack rents and forced evictions, which ultimately won the right of Irish tenant farmers to own their ownland. And now again, the people of Erris find themselves caughtup in a struggle for their land rights. But in this case it is notthe forces of a colonialist British state that are ranged againstthem, but their very own gov ernment and police.
        Why? Because the Irish gov -ernment is acting on behalf of Shell--think Nigeria, think Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others murdered, think trashed andpolluted landscape, burning vil lages ... and think also briberyand corruption.

    Compromising local health

    Shell are the major players in a consortium that has found gasoff the west coast. They want to bring it in at very high pressureto be refined in a terminal inland. The pipeline would crossan estuary where whales and dolphins come to feed, wherethere is also a local fishing industry, and would pass overfarmland and very close to peo ple's homes. It would also bebuilt on bog-land which is inherently unstable. The termi -nal would release greenhouse gases and other toxic wastes intothe surrounding air , as well as contaminating local groundwater.
        When, in 2005, Shell begandigging out the peat from the terminal site, aluminium wasexposed in the next layer of soil. Water running off from the sitegoes straight into Carrowmore Lake, which provides the localdrinking water. Despite numer ous bland assurances, it tookmonths for Shell to begin to sort out the water filtration system,and it is not certain that this is really working. But there is noother water to drink, so the local population's health is alreadycompromised. For all these reasons, localpeople are alarmed, and are try ing to stop the development.

    Preferential treatment

    What really hurts is that most of the gas is going to Norway andBritain, and virtually no profits will accrue either to the local community or to the Irish state.
        Back in the 70s, Ireland had agreed good terms for any oil exploration, with significant profits to go to the state. But that all changed when, in 1987, Ray Burke exempted oil and gas production from royalty payments. In 1992 the current prime minister, Bertie Aherne, then Minister of Finance,reduced corporation tax to 25%.
        In 2002 the governmentchanged the law so that the Minister for Communications,Marine and Natural Resources (Noel Dempsey) could makecompulsory acquisition orders (ie compulsory purchase orders) forthe benefit of private companies.
        Within weeks, landownersalong the pipeline route were told they would be served with CAOsunless they accepted compensa tion and allowed the pipeline togo across their land. The depart ment was also given power togrant permission for an upstream pipeline, carrying untreated gas,without being subject to normal planning procedures.

    Local resistance

    In 2005 five men went to jail for 94 days for refusing to comply with the CAOs. The day their imprisonment began, the Ross -port Solidarity camp was found ed. At the same time local peo -ple kept up a permanent picket of the terminal site.In October last year , 170 police from all over Irelanddescended on Rossport and broke up locals who were tryingto stop construction lorries from entering the terminal site. Protesters have been hit, batoncharged, thrown into ditches oneon top of the other ... and the police smell of drink at 7am.
        They are staying in local bedand breakfasts and eating at hotels. Nothing to do except try to terrorise the locals. No arrests are being made -- as then the whole operation would have to be justified in court, which could be difficult.
        Eve Campbell from the Ross -port Solidarity Camp states baldly, "You're fighting for yourlives and your community and your history--I can't really visu-alise this not being victorious, because people are fighting foreverything here".
        At a time when countries suchas Venezuela are insisting on getting fairer deals from oil andgas companies, the Irish govern ment is prepared to give moneyaway to the corporations and leave its own people uncompen -sated and unprotected. Apart from a few independent TDs(members of the Irish parlia ment), the local campaignagainst the proposal has little mainstream political support.Though Sinn Fein is supportive, that is a mixed blessing, as itbecomes easy for critics to dis miss the campaign as a republi -can conspiracy.

    A question of survival

    Instead of supporting the local community and sustainable liv -ing, the government is actively assisting in its destruction. At atime when the threat from cli mate change is ever more press -ing, a corporation is still intent on pursuing its own profits,regardless of the long-term cost to the planet and the rest of life. Ireland is surrounded by sea, and yet hardly any money isgoing into developing renewable wave and tidal energy. It seemsalmost certain that there is oil and gas to be found all down thewest coast, and with such favourable terms as currentlyoffered by the Irish government, companies will be anxious to getin there.
        Micheal O' Seighin, at 65 theoldest of the Rossport Five, speaks of the power of imagina -tion, that enables people to sur vive "where there was no possibility of survivability. When we think of how few suicides therewere during the famine ...Why the blazes didn't we all kill ourselves when the hunger ensured that half of us would die anyway? But we don't do that. ... That is the triumph of imagination over reality — that is what survivability is..."Rossport is a microcosm of what is happening to the entire planet.
        If Shell and the Irish government get their way , another community — or communities — and a whole way of life will become extinct. Forever. And then the story will be repeated somewhere else. But if imagination triumphs, we can create the real and lasting changes that are needed to keep us from destroying ourselves — and the rest of the earth.
    Camilla Cancantata is a Londonbased composer and improviser whose works include Trident, a British War Crime (anoratorio) and Soya Susie and the Gene Dictators (an opera).     Shell to Sea http://www.shelltosea.com
    Rossport Solidarity camp: : http://www.struggle.ws/rsc
    		•  
    		 
         
    All content of Peace News is Copyright © 2008 Peace News Ltd unless otherwise stated; see licence.
    Suggestions, comments etc. regarding this web-site should be directed to webmaster@peacenews.info.