The Beauty & The Beast of A Bellanaboy Christmas.
mayo |
environment |
news report
Wednesday December 27, 2006 13:42
by Niall Harnett - Shell to Hell.
rossportsolidaritycamp at gmail dot com
Bertie’s Batons in Christmas week. Peace and goodwill - stomped by the Bellanaboy Brutes. Shell’s Metal tested at the Gates on Christmas Day.
“ … But man, proud man,
Drest in a little brief authority,
Most ignorant of what he’s most assured,
His glassy essence, like an angry ape,
Plays such fantastic tricks before heaven,
As make the angels weep …” - William Shakespeare.
“It’s a Hard Rain …” - Bob Dylan.
The Beauty of Bellanaboy at Christmas ...
The month of December 2006 and, markedly, the last week before Christmas has seen a revival in the spirits and confidence of local people, matched by a re-escalation in Garda thuggishness, following the shock of police assaults on women and men, young and old, during the month of November. Mainstream media attention is predictably gone from Bellanaboy and, if you are living elsewhere around the country, you’d be forgiven for thinking there was little happening on the roads around the gates of the Shell Corrib Gas Refinery Site. But, the pickets have continued every day from October 3rd till now, with numbers back on the increase and a renewed sense of the urgent need to halt this project.
Efforts to block Shell machinery and personnel from destroying the beautiful barony of Erris, and challenges to the ongoing lawless behaviour of Shell’s Cops - An Garda Síochána, happen constantly, daily and ever more regularly. The sense of Spring approaching, the building season and the upcoming elections mean that people are feeling ‘the push into the corner’ and the compelling urgency of self-preservation. Gardaí respond, stinking of alcohol, with assaults, attempts to break fingers (a new development) and (on the Friday before Christmas) … the baton.
This Christmas, as is traditional, one might be tempted to offer some kind of peace offering, and I know I gave some consideration to calling into Belmullet Garda Station myself. But No, I rejected it as I reject the members of An Garda Síochána – Shell’s whores … We Rebuke Ye.
Familiarity between Gardaí and protesters is breeding mutual contempt, sadly, in this the season of peace and goodwill to all men.
Christmas at the trailer, Shell to Sea HQ, was lovely. Children, parents, grandparents, friends, mulled wine, hot whiskeys and some hot drops of the pure! … and Aron’s banofi pie. Everybody in good form, chatting and happy. No cops. A walk up to the gate, an inspection of the infrastructure, and the dismantling of the same for a look into the site and a face to face chat with Shell security. Minutes later Detective Garda Noel Brett parks up quietly followed by a squad car with a garda and bean-garda. Chats with Ricky the security guard, some banter with Shell to Sea, no bother.
THE LAW IS AN ASS WHEN IT COMES TO THE GAS!
Supt. Joe Gannon says that it is unacceptable for ‘local people to take control’ at Bellanaboy. I say it is totally acceptable … and in his own terms … lawful, because the EU Laws of sustainability, the Aarhus convention and the Local Agenda 21 principle of local government, give communities the legal right to say how a project such as this should be managed, laws which have been ignored by this government who, with the aid of Joe Gannon and his thugs, selectively apply laws to protect Shell and to conceal the corrupt history of Bertie Ahern and his kind in Government. I say also that it is unacceptable for An Garda Sochána to exercise control at Bellanaboy and they must be removed.
Moreover, it is a LEGITIMATE STRUGGLE, JUST & TRUE, to oppose and resist this project because it is simply ‘the wrong project in the wrong place’, and it is the duty of us all to take responsibility, as Shell to Sea has done …for the stopping of it.
… The Beast
All we want for Christmas – Shell to Hell.
Christmas Dinner at the Rossport Solidarity Camp, cosy in the dunes of Glengad.
And never, go deo, will you win with your corporate way.
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Comments (23 of 23)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23All pics copyleft.
Someone hits the deck
Garda GW228, stinking of alcohol, aggressive and trying to break protesters fingers.
All pics copyleft.
Tony O’Donnell tells it like it is.
Gate 3.
All pics copyleft.
Tommy Cafferty got batoned by RG38 on the last Friday before Christmas and his arm is in bad shape.
All pics copyleft.
Get thee hence thou foul creature
Garda GW55 tried to break the fingers of this photographer!
GW55 again, refuses to identify himself. GW's, Galway West, thugs giving Connemara a really bad name.
RG38 ran from the camera for the darkness after batoning Tommy and threatened to take the car of a Mayo nurse living in Belfast with northern reg plate.
All pics copyleft.
Happy Christmas Chief, Victory in the New Year.
All pics copyleft.
Time to relax now.
Christmas visitors bring gifts and goodies.
Our hero and friend, Terence Conway - The Redoubtable.
All pics copyleft.
Aah … A Christmas Carol!
Workin’ up an appetite.
What do they say about 2’s and trouble!
Great having Kate’s family for Christmas.
All pics copyleft.
mmm Christmas fare …
… and a well stocked camp kitchen!
Season’s Greetings, come on in.
Fighting over a lovely hamper from Betty and Fritz, lunchtime on Christmas Eve ...
... and the girls fight over Kate’s Dad.
All pics copyleft.
Master Chef, Mister Baker prepares Christmas Dinner.
We love you Aron, Happy Christmas pal.
All pics copyleft.
Bellanaboy on Christmas Day.
The three wise men!
Take it handy there Mary!
All pics copyleft.
Hand made gingerbread protesters from Betty, Kilcommon Lodge.
“Wenn Unrecht zu Recht wird wird Widerstand zur Pflicht“ - Betty. When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.
Family & Friends.
All pics copyleft.
Gathering at the gates.
Site inspection.
Testing Shell’s Metal.
All pics copyleft.
Stable door must be open at Christmas.
Hang your head indeed man.
Mind the Gap!
Angels bearing gifts?
All pics copyleft.
Go home to your family Ricky and have some self-respect will you please.
You too Detective Garda Noel Brett, so as you won’t have to continue hiding your face in shame.
Best regards to all our friends and supporters at home and abroad. What a pleasure it is for us all to work together and enjoy eachother.
Wenn Unrecht zu Recht wird wird Widerstand zur Pflicht.
When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.
Victory in the New Year.
Broadhaven Bay and the way it’s gonna stay.
Anyone got time to do some digging on this?
Trawling through the internet, from Al Jazeera to the Guardian, Democracy Now has the best in depth, empathetic, coverage of the Lagos disaster and the provenance of last weeks bombings?.
This is a phrase from a banner in an annual book of photos that Betty has about the Gorleben blockades of nuclear waste transport and storage in Germany. It's an apt phrase that obviously sounds better in German cos it's a play on words.
Can we come up with some translations in English that might suit?
Word by word it translates roughly as:
When/If unright right becomes, becomes resistance into duty.
When unright becomes right, resistance becomes duty.
Betty and I translated it above as:
When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.
I heard another one tonight:
When wrong becomes right, it's your duty to fight!
Any more out there?!
Excellent Photos there Niall - brings it all home most vivdly!!
Unlike the Gardai,Shell, O'Reilly Press, Mcdowell/Governementt etc. pictures never lie!!!
Really enjoyable pictures. The camaraderie and unity are very clear from the photos. Just sorry we cannot be with you over the holidays. Really impressed by the flaming Christmas pudding! You have to be fairly sober to try that one. I can remember setting fire to my oven gloves and then in a glorious trail of brandy the worktop one year.
there was a flurry of leaflets handed out here down in Kerry the Saturday before Christmas and with a fair bit of interest. Maybe we needed a gimmick ? maybe next year we should have a theme possibly Christmas fairies, Kerry football team?? that would get a few comments. UP MAYO!!!!!!! Enjoy the rest of the Christmas and let us hope and pray for a healthy, positive New Year for all of us. Bring it on!!!!!!! What we want is a picture of the Mayo football team with the Sam Maguire at Bellanboy and half the county for 2007.xx
love & solidarity to youse all at the picket & camp - sorry I cdn't be there! But be with youse soon; meantimes, people in UK are learning more about Shell, Erris, Bellanaboy & our ongoing struggle.
Deplorable behaviour by guards - again - hope that Tommy's OK.
Well done S2S, keep it up.
As ever NIall, great reporting..
dunk
So sad to see this is happening in Ireland, but here in South America we've seen 1st hand the misery and poverty brought about by corrupt politicians that sell (i.e. give away) countries' natural ressources to big global multinationals. Visit Bolivia and you get the idea... at least now things look a bit better with President Evo Morales, who has nationalised their massive gas deposits (not a popular move outside of Bolivia, but a brave one and hopefully the right one). Also there's Venezuela's Hugo Chaves, Mr. Bush's arch enemy in this neck of the world, why? Because he prefers to sell his oil to his poorer neighbours than give it all to the oil-hungry US, so he's tainted by the US government as red-left wing communist. Mind you he is Fidel's best buddy!!!
Let's just hope the next Irish government actually listens to the people of the land and make this country a country that can be respected internationally for being just and fair, something that must go along with prosperity, otherwise whats it all for???
When we get back to Ireland we would love to offer you our support in any which way we can.
Adios muchachos and keep up the good work!
James