**Sorry to be so late posting this
IRISH REPUBLICAN INFORMATION SERVICE (no. 25)
Teach Dáithí Ó Conaill, 223 Parnell Street, Dublin 1, Ireland
Phone: +353-1-872 9747; FAX: +353-1-872 9757;
e-mail: saoirse@iol.ie
Date: 11 Iúil / July 2005
Internet resources maintained by SAOIRSE-Irish Freedom
http://saoirse.rr.nu
In this issue:
1. Steep rise in loyalist attacks
2. Faul attack on ‘inhuman’ jails
3. McBride to take case to Europe
4. McAllister waits as judges ponder
5. Three acquitted of gun-running charges
6. Stasi-like policing
7. Brakes put on Saracen Drive in Creggan
8. UDA ‘paid witness to drop statement’
9. Fears of a renewed picket at Harryville
10. An Fhirinne: Conference will give young people a chance to understand collusion
11. Challenge to proposed route of M3 motorway
12. Allegations of Garda brutality continue
13. Boycott Shell and Statoil petrol stations and shops
14. Gas pipeline explosions and shell’s profits
15. Alternative G8 summit in Edinburgh
1. STEEP RISE IN LOYALIST ATTACKS
A REPORT published on July 4 said that loyalist death squads have been responsible for 14 separate over the last month.
Between June 1 and 30, members of both the Ulster Defence Association and the Ulster Volunteer Force have carried out numerous knee-cappings, beatings and petrol and paint bomb attacks.
On June 6, a 27-year-old Protestant was hospitalised after being beaten by men carrying iron bars in Ballyclare, Co Antrim. The following day in Coleraine, Co Derry, loyalists were responsible for a series of petrol bomb attacks on the homes and cars of nationalists. A list of names of suspected Republicans was posted on walls throughout the town.
After a three-day break, loyalist death squad activity made the news again on June 10 when a gang beat a 52-year-old woman with baseball bats in Ballymoney, Co Antrim. Her attackers told her she had 24 hours to leave the country.
On June 16, loyalists gave another baseball bat beating to a man in Bangor, Co Down, before going on the rampage over June 17/19 - the weekend of the controversial Tour of the North Orange Order march through north Belfast.
After clashing with nationalists as the parade passed the Ardoyne shops, loyalists waited until nightfall to attack homes and cars in the Whitewell area of north Belfast.
The next day, June 18, homes on the edge of the Catholic Ligoniel estate were paint-bombed. Two days later, three homes in the Whitewell area were destroyed in an arson attack when loyalists set fire to oil tanks at the back of the properties.
On June 23, in another arson attack, loyalists attempted to burn down St John’s Church in Portadown, Co Armagh.
The relatively quite Co Antrim seaside town of Carrickfergus was the scene for widespread loyalist violence on June 27.
Rival mobs attacked each other with meat cleavers and bricks. Four men were injured attacks during the fights and a crossbow bolt was fired at the PSNI who were called to the scene.
The next day loyalists in Bangor carried out an attack shooting a 17-year-old in the knees.
On June 29 the east Belfast home of Protestants Róisín Orr and Ryan Robinson was petrol-bombed by loyalists because Ms Orr has an ‘Irish sounding’ surname.
On the same night, a nationalist woman’s home in the village of Ahoghill, Co Antrim, was targeted in a paint bomb attack.
2. FAUL ATTACK ON ‘INHUMAN’ JAILS
MONSIGNOR Denis Faul is to raise concerns about their “inhuman” treatment with the Six-County prisons’ Ombudsman. He is compiling a critical report about the separated regime after receiving complaints from the Republican Prisoners’ Action Group.
Supporters of the prisoners say that unless the situation is addressed, the conditions leading up to the 1981 hunger strikes could develop again.
Msgr Faul is highlighting concerns about the use of a drug detection dog to deny visitors to Maghaberry access to prisoners, excessive searching of inmates and long hours spent in cells under the new system.
John Steele introduced the scheme after a report in 2003 into Republican prisoners’ long-standing demands for separation but Denis Faul says conditions are unacceptable. “This is inhuman, none of this applies in the rest of the prison.
“Because these people wanted separation they are determined to crucify them so they won’t want separation again,” he said. “There are a number of issues which need to be addressed including this drug dog which searches visitors.
“Whenever it sits down at somebody’s feet, the whole group is expelled and this is an abuse of their civil liberties and there is no tradition of drug use within Republicanism anyway.
“They’re letting this dog crawl all over the prisoners’ beds during searches of their cells without changing their sheets, which is unhygienic and I want to know if any of the prison officers would sleep in a bed after a dog has crawled all over it.”
The Co Tyrone priest said he was alarmed at the number of prisoner searches, often several times daily, and said strip-searching was “degrading”.
3. MCBRIDE TO TAKE CASE TO EUROPE
THE mother of a nationalist teenager, murdered by two members of the British army’s Scots Guards regiment in North Belfast, is taking a legal action to the European Court of Human Rights demanding they be expelled from the British army.
Jean McBride was legally obliged to exhaust all domestic remedies before she could go to the European
Court, and after she lost a High Court action in Belfast, she is now free to do so. Her solicitor, Peter Madden said that neither the British soldiers, their commanding officers, the chain of command nor the British political and military establishment “had ever acknowledged their wrongdoing:.
“It is our view that earlier decisions of two army boards, that there were exceptional reasons to retain the killers, is a refusal to accept the decisions of the trial judge, the Court of Appeal and the [British] House of Lords,” he said.
Madden pointed out that other British soldiers, charged with far lesser offences, had been discharged from the British army. A British major was recently expelled for cheating on a TV game show, but the services of two murderers are being retained.
Jean McBride’s 18-year-old son Peter was shot dead by the two Scots Guards in Belfast in 1992. The patrol had earlier body-checked him for weapons and allowed him to proceed.
The two were sentenced to life for murder in 1995, but three years later were released from prison and allowed to rejoin their regiment. At their trial, they claimed they believed Peter McBride was carrying a bomb. But the judge found they were lying as they had already stopped and searched him.
“I don’t think there is a judge in Northern Ireland with the bottle to stand up against the establishment, so it looks like we’ll have to take our case to Europe,” said the dead man’s mother.
4. McALLISTER WAITS AS JUDGES PONDER
MALACHY McAllister must now wait as three judges ponder his and his family’s fate.
Attorneys were given time to outline Malachy McAllister’s appeal against deportation before a three-judge panel in a Newark (USA) federal courtroom last week.
The panel is part of the federal third circuit court of appeals based in Philadelphia and included Pennsylvania’s First Lady and the sister of real estate mogul Donald Trump.
“Malachy will likely have to wait at least a couple of months before a decision his handed down,” said attorney Eamonn Dornan.
Dornan said that he was pleased with the way that the hearing went and felt that lawyers for the [United States] justice department had not fully pressed the case against McAllister and his two dependent children.
At one point during the hearing, which lasted over an hour, Judge Maryanne Trump Barry questioned the government’s view of McAllister as being a threat to U.S. national security.
The case was heard before Judge Trump Barry as well as Judge Marjorie Rendell and Jane Roth. Rendell’s husband, Ed, is governor of Pennsylvania.
Attorney Dornan said that while the three judge’s appeared sympathetic to the McAllister family’s plight, there was concern that the court might feel that it did not possess sufficient jurisdiction to decide the case and that greater discretion resided in the office of the US attorney-general.
If that is the case, and if politics does ultimately decide Malachy McAllister’s fate then the Belfast man and onetime INLA member will be able to turn to the backing of over forty members of the US Congress who signed a letter supporting his bid for a new life in America.
One of the signatories, New York Rep. Eliot Engel, said in a statement coinciding with the court hearing that he knew the McAllister family personally, that they had come to the U.s. as refugees and had “lived the lives of model immigrants”, working hard and contributing to the community.
“They are no threat to the safety of the United States. They came to make a better, and safer, life for themselves. In the process they made their community, and their adopted country, better by their contributions to it,” Engel said.
The McAllisters fled Belfast after a gun attack by a British-backed loyalist death squad on their home.
5. THREE ACQUITTED OF GUN-RUNNING CHARGES
THREE people charged with funding Provisional gun-running in the US were acquitted at Belfast Crown Court. A fourth co-accused was acquitted earlier this month. Charges against the defendants were brought by the RUC in November 2002, based on evidence that had been in their possession for three years.
Maria Brogan and Patricia O’Kane, both of Dunloy in Co. Antrim, and Belfast men Seán Burns and Lawrence Claxton were accused of facilitating the control of funds for an illegal organisation. The RUC/PSNI case was based on the accused sharing bank accounts with other people, including some relatives.
All of the accused strenuously denied the charges. Maria Brogan had told the RUC/PSNI when charged, “I am absolutely not guilty of this offence, which is based on allegations against my brother, who has never been arrested, tried or convicted of any offence of this nature.” Seán Burns had replied to the charges by stating, “The only conspiracy here is a political one”.
Defence lawyers repeatedly complained about the delays in bringing the case to trial. Despite voluminous amounts of prosecution material collated as alleged evidence, Justice Paul Girvan concluded that the case did not meet the standard required for criminal evidence.
In an unrelated case, in which media leaks also played a part, a man charged in connection with the Omagh bombing was freed last week after the charge against him was dropped.
In stark contrast to the huge publicity when he was arrested and charged, there were no reporters in court when the charges were withdrawn and the case only came to light the following day.
Anthony Joseph Donegan, 34, from Dundalk, Co. Louth was freed on the instruction of the Public Prosecution Service. Raymond Kitson of the PPS confirmed the charge had been dropped.
“I can tell you the file was received, considered and the test for prosecution was not met.” He said the PPS had studied the file sent to them by the RUC/PSNI “very, very carefully” before making the decision.
Anthony Donegan was charged in February in connection with the car used to carry the Real IRA bomb that exploded in the County Tyrone town in August 1998 killing 29 people.
The charge put to him, when he appeared before Omagh Magistrates’ court, sitting in Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, was that on a date unknown between August 11 and 16 1998, he made available to another person a maroon Vauxhall Cavalier car knowing it might be used for terrorism.
Seán Gerard Hoey, aged 35, of Jonesborough, South Armagh, is the only man still in custody charged with the bombing. He was charged in May with the murders of the 29 people killed.
6. STASI-LIKE POLICING
A COUNTY Derry man has spoken of his fear after the RUC\PSNI attempted to recruit him as an informer.
Armed RUC/PSNI officers arrested the man, who does not want to be identified, at his home in Kilrea, Co Derry, at the end of May. After being taken to Coleraine RUC/PSNI station the man says two plain-clothed RUC/PSNI members who asked him approached him questions about two named nationalists in the Kilrea area.
The officers, believed to members of RUC/PSNI Special Branch, also told the man to expect a further approach in the coming weeks.
The attempt to recruit the man came after a raid on his home when the RUC/PSNI seized several legally-purchased air rifles and a crossbow. The approach was made while the man was being questioned in Coleraine RUC/PSNI station about the items found in his home.
The man at the centre of the RUC/PSNI approach spoke of his fear for the future:
“They asked me about men I knew in the Kilrea area but I told them I knew nothing about those people and as far as I am concerned they are good people. I was terrified, to tell you the truth, and they said they would be in touch with me. They said ‘you are going to be approached by some people and you are going to get it from both sides’. I am very worried about it all. If the wrong people got to hear about this I would be afraid to even walk up the street.
“This has all been very worrying for me. I am a bundle of nerves and I don’t know which way to turn. I am out on police bail at the minute and I hope all this doesn’t affect that.”
7. BRAKES PUT ON SARACEN DRIVE IN CREGGAN
A BRITISH military vehicle enthusiast has cancelled his plans to drive a Saracen vehicle used in Operation Motorman back into the heart of Derry’s Creggan estate due to the offence its presence would cause.
David Perks, from Birmingham, had been hoping to bring the vehicle back to Creggan later this month to mark the 33rd anniversary of the British Army’s brutal assault on the nationalist area. David Perks wanted to recreate a photograph of his Alvis Saracen armoured personnel carrier at Lislane Drive. However, Derry-based human rights group the Pat Finucane Centre earlier this year led calls for a rethink.
David Perks was warned that such a move would be likely to cause widespread offence to the families of two teenagers killed during the high profile operation and the Creggan community.
Daniel Hegarty (15) was shot at close range by a British soldier in Creggan Heights on July 31 1972 and died before reaching Altnagelvin Hospital. Seamus Bradley (19), was shot and killed the same day in a separate incident in Bishop’s Field.
Later that day an IRA bomb exploded in the Co Derry village of Claudy, killing nine people. Mr Perks stressed the last thing he wanted to do was upset anybody. Despite earlier making it clear that none of those involved in the project were in the British Army, he said that due to the sensitivities, the vehicle would be staying put.
He added that the planned trip had been for “purely historical” reasons.
8. UDA ‘PAID WITNESS TO DROP STATEMENT’
LOYALIST death squad chiefs paid a star witness thousands to withdraw statements linking senior UDA figures to a brutal murder, it is claimed.
An unnamed man was forced to accept £10,000 to keep his mouth shut about the circumstances surrounding the 2003 murder of Alan ‘Bucky’ McCullough, according to the authors of a history of the UDA.
In a new edition of the book — UDA: Inside The Heart of Loyalist Terror — it is claimed that UDA heavies leaned on the man, and persuaded him to withdraw statements he had given police allegedly linking Ihab Shoukri and William ‘Mo’ Courtney to the disappearance of McCullough.
McCullough - who was one of Johnny Adair’s ‘Bolton Wanderers’, but later turned against the exiled loyalists - was taken from his mother’s north Belfast home, in May 2003.
He was later shot and his body buried in a shallow grave, on the outskirts of Belfast. Both Shoukri and Courtney were arrested and charged with his murder, although the murder charge against Shoukri was later dropped. Since the murder, McCullough’s family and friends have suffered a campaign of intimidation from loyalist thugs.
Among those who have been targeted, is Presbyterian minister the Rev Ruth Pettigrew. The book’s authors explained: “The UDA had concluded, wrongly, that the McCulloughs were refusing to withdraw charges against two senior loyalists, because of the continued help, welfare and advice (the Rev Ruth Pettigrew) was offering them.
“They believed, incorrectly, that the Rev Pettigrew was advising them to hold firm, and stick to the statements to the police, which claimed that two key UDA members took Alan McCullough from his home prior to the murder.
“The intimidation had already worked on someone outside of the McCullough family circle, who was paid £10,000 to withdraw his statement against the two charged with the murder - Ihab Shoukri and Mo Courtney.”
Mo Courtney was recently granted bail, but remains accused of the murder of ‘Bucky’ McCullough. The charge against Shoukri was dropped, but he remains accused of membership of the UDA.
9. FEARS OF A RENEWED PICKET AT HARRYVILLE
LOYALISTS may re-start their controversial picket of a Catholic church in Ballymena, it was claimed on July 4. PUP man Billy McCaughey held out the threat that the Harryville picket could resume, if Orange parades are re-routed in the Co Antrim town.
For the first time, the Six Counties Parades Commission is to rule on a march in Ballymena, which it has described as contentious. Billy McCaughey, a former member of the RUC who was jailed for life for the murder of a nationalist in the 1970s, was among 50 loyalist protestors, whose presence led to a [British] District Policing Partnership meeting being abandoned last week.
On July 4 he said: “I have a suspicion that if a parade is banned in Ballymena that it could lead to the Harryville protest re-starting. But I would hope there would be enough cool heads to say ‘no don’t do that’. But it could well happen.”
The Church of Our Lady in Harryville is once again, during the months of July and August, voluntarily cancelling Saturday evening Masses. Loyalist protesters mounted a weekly picket outside the church during Saturday services, between September 1996 and May 1998.
The picket was mounted because of loyalist anger over nationalist objections to an Orange march through nearby Dunloy.
10. AN FHIRINNE: CONFERENCE WILL GIVE YOUNG PEOPLE A CHANCE TO UNDERSTAND COLLUSION
YOUNG people will get a chance to talk about how British State collusion has affected their lives at a conference next month in St Mary’s College on west Belfast’s Falls Road.
Young people have spoken about collusion and how there is a sense of detachment among many people about state murder.
Sétanta Marley was just two weeks old when his father Larry was shot dead by the British-backed death squad the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) at the front door of the family home in Ardoyne, north Belfast, on April 2, 1987. He is just one of many children across the Six Counties to have grown up without ever knowing their fathers.
“All my life, I have been dependent on my family and friends to tell me about my father so that I can build up an image in my head of what he was like,” said the 18-year-old “There is a real contrast in the way my family talk about how funny my father was and the way the media portrayed him. Instead of portraying the story of a mother and her six sons being left without a father, they chose to portray him as an IRA terrorist.”
Larry Marley was just one of a number of men from Ardoyne gunned down by the UVF during the Troubles. He was shot dead as he went to answer a knock at his front door in Havana Gardens.
His murder entered the international media spotlight when the RUC baton-charged mourners as they attempted to bring Larry Marley to his funeral.
Three nights of rioting in north and west Belfast followed the clash over his funeral.
Joe Marley, another son, was 15 when his father was killed. He said there was a massive RUC presence all over north Belfast at the time of the funeral.
Repeated attempts were made over a number of days to go ahead with the funeral. At one point, the mourners placed the coffin on the ground and refused to move until the RUC moved back. Thousands of nationalists came out and lined the streets on the day Larry Marley was finally buried in the Republican Plot in Milltown cemetery six days after his murder.
The Marley family recently asked a firm of solicitors to take another look at the circumstances surrounding Larry Marley’s death. The family has always believed that there was state collusion.
Sétanta Marley said: “The UVF men came to the door, and one of them said he was a friend of the family. My father knew that it wasn’t so they fired a number of bullets through the front door into my father’s chest. He died about 90 minutes after in hospital.”
He added: “I believe that RUC and British army collusion were behind my father’s death as there are a number of things that point towards collusion.
“First off, the RUC raided the house and measured the house and asked who slept in each room a few weeks earlier. My father had bullet-proof glass in the back door of the house as there was a main road behind the house. Yet when the men came to kill him, they seemed to know not to fire at the back of the house and came up to the front door to fire.”
The family believes there was state collusion with loyalists at the time of Larry Marley’s murder.
“We don’t know how high up the state collusion into my father’s death went or who ordered his death but we do want to expose the state for what they did,” Sétanta Marley said.
Sétanta Marley has just finished his A-levels and is looking forward to going to university later this year. However, he will never forget what happened to his father. He is just one of a number of young people who will be taking part in the Youth for Truth conference on August 4. It is hoped that the conference will give young people a chance to understand what collusion is and that it is not just a buzzword used by republicans.
11. CHALLENGE TO PROPOSED ROUTE OF M3 MOTORWAY
VINCENT Salafia, an environmental activist, is set to contest the legality of the M3 motorway. He is looking to re-route the motorway away from the Hill of Tara.
In a statement on July 8 he said that the Tara campaign had become quiet of late, and that it was time to mobilise public support in a very public way.
He said, “A strong message needs to be sent to the Government, and to the nation, that the people want the digs stopped. As you have seen, a new survey shows the majority of Irish people are against the route, and thus the excavation of Tara.
“On June 14, the Minister for the Environment, The Attorney General, Meath County Council, and the National Roads Authority will come to the High Court and give their first answer to the legal charges railed against them. Certain procedural determinations will be made that way, on how the case will proceed. One of the main issues, of course, will be whether the authorities will stop work of their own accord, and respect the legal process, or whether they will plough ahead, and the judge will be forced to either issue an order or an injunction. The fact that works are still continuing since the July 4 hearing in the High Court, when leave was granted to review the legality of the M3 motorway scheme, shows the contempt the authorities have for the law. They must be shown up, for the cultural criminals they are.”
“A protest will begin outside the High Court on the morning of Thursday July 14, at 9.00 am. It will continue throughout the day, until the hearing is concluded. The hearing will begin at 11.00 am and could run into the afternoon.”
The alternative route, between Navan and Dunshaughlin and considered initially by the National Roads Authority and Meath County Council, is a viable option, Vincent Salafia argues. It is also 2.5km shorter. Salafia, a member of the Brehon Law Society, further argues that “the directions regarding the M3 are in excess of the Minister’s powers and are issued under the incorrect provision of the National Monuments Amendment Act 2004…and that the provisions are unconstitutional in that they fail to afford adequate protection for national monuments”.
The campaign against the M3 route through the Hill of Tara, one of Ireland’s oldest and most sacred historic and prehistoric sites, continues, with academics, historians, environmentalists and many concerned citizens opposed to what they see as the destruction of Tara.
12. ALLEGATIONS OF GARDA BRUTALITY CONTINUE
ON Monday July 4 the mother of a 16-year-old youth, who was due to appear in the juvenile court, claimed in court that her son was left ‘in a state of concussion and had baton marks on his back’ after being beaten by Gardaí while in custody in Store St Garda station in Dublin. An inquiry is to be conducted at Store St Garda station regarding the claims.
The case of Brian Rossiter, the 14-year old who died in September 2002 after being moved unconscious from Clonmel Garda station to hospital, is now under investigation but only after massive publicity forced the Minister to order an enquiry.
The charges that excessive force was used on Brian and his companion Anthony O’Sullivan during their arrest and detention; the legality of the detention of a 14-year-old in a Garda station; the failure of the gardaí to provide a medical inspection of Brian; the claim by gardaí that Brian had been on a drink and drugs binge for several days prior to his arrest despite a clean toxicologogy report to the contrary, are just some of the questions that need to be answered by the inquiry.
It has also emerged that the Gardaí fail to keep proper records of people who have died in custody. An independent investigation should be carried out into all deaths in custody according to Aisling Reidy, Irish Council for Civil Liberties. Garda figures show that 13 people died in, or after being in, custody between 1997-2003.
Accounts of garda corruption and brutality continue to make news headlines. The Barron and Morris Tribunals in particular have made to public aware of the unaccountability of the Garda Siochána. But granting special powers to the Minister for Justice and setting up a committee to deal with complaints against the gardaí is not going to solve the problem of accountability or restore confidence in a discredited force.
Michael McDowell rushed through 138 amendments to the Garda Bill, one of which gives him carte blanche access to Garda information. So much for confidentiality. The bill also sets up a commission, rather than an Ombudsman, to deal with complaints against the gardaí - this means no one person will take responsibility for decisions. Again no accountability.
According to Donnacha Ó Conaill, law lecturer in NUI Galway and human rights activist, “The minister has confused political oversight with political control and it is worrying that the Bill strengthens the relationship between the commission, the Minister and the Government rather than having an independent authority without the perception of political interference.”
Dermot Walsh, Professor of Law at University of Limerick has also criticised the Bill and the increased powers to be given to the gardaí under the Criminal Justice Bill. He said: “The Criminal Justice Bill is reactionary and excessive, responding to the hysteria that has been whipped up about crime by certain sections of the media. Yet the Garda Bill has failed to counteract the increased powers of the gardaí.”
13. BOYCOTT SHELL AND STATOIL PETROL STATIONS AND SHOPS
SPEAKING at a rally in Castlebar on July 3 attended by more than 1500 people in support of the five Co Mayo farmers jailed by the Dublin High Court on June 29, the President of Republican Sinn Fein Ruairí Ó Brádaigh lent his voice to the calls for a boycott of Shell.
“We would certainly be supporting the calls for a boycott of Shell. This is a company which, along with two other multinationals is set to reap huge profits at the expense of the Irish people as a result of an agreement with the Dublin Administration. Under this agreement it pays no royalties to the state and only 25% on profits as compared to Norway, where 78% tax on profits is charged as well as the payment of royalties. The Irish people will then be charged full market rates to buy the gas back from Shell.
“It is the negotiation of such a clearly unacceptable contract which should be examined before the courts, not local people who are guilty of nothing more than seeking to protect their families, homes, livelihoods and environment. However once again the Dublin Administration has shown it is willing to go to any lengths, including the jailing of its own citizens, to protect the interests of multi-nationals.
“Shell’s record particularly in the developing world is atrocious. Its treatment of the Ogoni people in Nigeria and its destruction of their homeland amounted to environmental terrorism, this culminated in the execution of human rights campaigner Ken Saro-Wiwa in 1995, recognized by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience, who had led a peaceful campaign to protect the rights of the Ogoni people.
“Many believe that Shell brought influence to bear on the Nigerian government to arrest Ken Saro-Wiwa on a trumped up murder charge because of his activism in highlighting the treatment of the Ogoni people and their homeland at the hands of Shell.
“It would now appear that Bertie Ahern and his government are also willing to lock up its citizens whilst at the same time allowing Shell to dictate the energy and environmental policy of the 26 Counties.”
Three multinational companies, headed by Shell, are developing the Corrib Gas Field. They intend to refine the gas in a formerly Coilte-owned 165-hectare forest, which is 9 km inland. Shell intend to run the Upstream (offshore) pipeline through this 9 km stretch of land alongside (and under) the public road and in close proximity to houses. Shell maintains that there is nothing exceptional about this pipeline and that there are gas pipelines operating safely towns and cities around Ireland.
Shell’s claim is contradicted by the facts. High pressure Bord Gais transmission pipelines in Ireland must adhere to ’sales gas’ standards ie cleaned, odorized gas with pressure less than 80 bar and situated a mandatory distance of 70 meters from dwellings to conform with regulations. Maximum pressure in urban areas is 4 bar.
The Corrib Gas Upstream pipeline conforms to none of these. Firstly:
• It has a huge bar pressure of 345, (ie 5.000 -psi, a car tyre is 21 psi)
• It will be unodorised, so leaks cannot be detected.
• It will not be possible to maintain even a 70m separation from houses and stay safely clear of the loose clay cliff face along the shore of the Sruth Fada Conn Esturary.
• It will come ashore at Dooncarton where there were over 40 separate landslides.
What is clear from all of this is that Shell’s pipeline through Rossport poses a serious risk to the local community. The 26-County Environment Minister Noel Dempsey acknowledged, in reply to a question in Leinster House, that it is unparalled not only within Ireland but also within Europe or elsewhere. Speaking at the rally in Castlebar Dr Werner Blau, Professor of Physics at Trinity College, Dublin said that the proximity of the pipeline to houses wouldn’t even comply with US standards that were “pretty lax”.
“The US office of Pipeline Safety has recorded 1,586 incidents including 61 fatalities, 235 injuries and over $408 million of damage from 1986 to 2004,” he told the rally.
The demand of the five me, Micheál Ó Seighin, James Brendan Philbin, Willie Corduff, Vincent McGrath and Philip McGrath and the people of Rossport are reasonable. In 2003 it was recommended by a senior inspector of An Bord Pleanalathat the gas should be refined offshore as is the case with Kinsale gas, and around the world, rendering it much safer. Shell as always are quite prepared to put profits before people, refining the gas onshore saves them €200 million regardless of the substantial danger to the people of Rossport and the surrounding area.
The families’ call for the renegotiation of the entire state deal with gas and oil exploration companies under the 1992 Finance Act is one that makes perfect sense and should be fully supported.
That the Health and Safety Authority have disclaimed any jurisdiction for ensuring the safety and well being of the people living along this 9km stretch of pipeline coupled with the fact that 26-County Department of the Environment have refused to give access to the Risk Assessment report prepared in 2001 for this section of pipeline despite repeated requests by local residents and their public representatives raises serious questions which must be answered. As the Galway based engineer Brian Coyle said at the rally in Castlebar: “It is well known that pipelines failed, and if this pipeline was laid along its current route people will die.”
14. GAS PIPELINE EXPLOSIONS AND SHELL’S PROFITS
IN Jesse in the Niger Delta in 1998 over a thousand people were burned to death. Men, women and children had been collecting oil in cans and cups from a leak in a pipeline running through their land. Oil, which they had no access to because they were the poor and the marginalized. The profit from the oil, taken out of their land, went to the multinationals and the [already] wealthy corporations.
In August 2000 a gas pipeline exploded at Carlsbad, New Mexico killing seven adults and five children. A report from the US Office of Pipeline Safety show that from1986 to date, 4,280 accidents with natural gas pipelines have taken place resulting in 382 deaths, 3,061 injuries and $780 worth of damage to property.
In 2004 an explosion in a natural gas pipeline in Belgium killed 15 people and injured 120.
Shell want to run a high-pressure gas pipeline through a part of Mayo which has been proved ‘unstable’ by the landslide at Dooncarton last year. It is a scandal that five men are in jail for refusing to be intimidated and bullied by Shell and the 26-County administration. And we thought that we no longer needed the Land League. How wrong we were.
Shell’s after-tax profits last year ran to $17.5 billion.
15. ALTERNATIVE G8 SUMMIT IN EDINBURGH
ON what was a very busy weekend for Republican Sinn Féin, Republican Sinn Féin two Vice Presidents, Josephine Hayden and Des Dalton along with members of the Francis Hughes Cumann, Republican Sinn Féin Glasgow took part in the Alternative G8 events in Edinburgh on July 2 and 3.
RSF’s events kicked off in Dublin on June 30 when RSF joined in the 20,000 strong ‘Make Poverty History’ march.
In a statement Des Dalton said Republican Sinn Féin were taking part in the events to highlight “the fact that the G8 countries’ political and economic agenda is the new imperialism of the 21st Century. Their goal is the enrichment of the most powerful industrialized states of the northern hemisphere regardless of the cost in terms of people or the environment.
“This ruthless acquisition and exploitation of natural resources is there for all to see in Iraq where the US and Britain have waged a vicious and illegal war of conquest on the Iraqi people in order to control that nations vast oil reserves.
“Nearer to home the national rights of many nations continue to be denied, be it here in Ireland, where part of our country remains under British occupation, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, the Basque country and the various other stateless nations of Europe.” he said.
Both Vice-Presidents took part in the Anti-Poverty march in Edinburgh on July 2 as well as addressing workshops at the Alternative G8 summit in Edinburgh University on Sunday July 3. (See full report in July SAOIRSE.)
ENDS
