Bellenaboy refinery shutdown

by krossie - wsm personal capacity Fri Apr 13, 2007 13:03

More info

more info?

kp

by Etain - Shell To Sea Fri Apr 13, 2007 14:02

Is this true? would be great news or is it just hearsay, confirm!!!!!!

by Supporter Fri Apr 13, 2007 14:59

I presume the author has been phoned by a protestor at Bellanaboy who says that they have temporarily shut down the refinery site (in case any readers thought the site had been shut permanently! - though that would be very good news obviously). The author needs to get back on to his on-the-ground source and get an update.

by Biker Fri Apr 13, 2007 15:14

The Irish Examiner's Breaking News section is reporting scuffles at Ballinaboy - i.e. Shell's Cops have weight in on peaceful protesters again.

FROM THE IRISH EXAMINER.......

Scuffles break out during protest at Shell plant in Mayo

Scuffles have broken out between gardaí and protestors during a demonstration today outside the controversial plant being built by Shell in Co Mayo.

Supporters of the Shell to Sea campaign group are accusing gardaí of heavy-handedness in dealing with demonstrators who tried to block a lorry from reaching the construction site.

The group says several of its supporters were knocked to the ground during the scuffles.

The protest was taking place as part of the long-running campaign against the refinery and pipeline being built by Shell to process gas from the Corrib field.

by Spectator - / Fri Apr 13, 2007 16:02 Mayo

Is it any wonder that the gardai are only too willing to knock lumps out of you with your constant carry on? Jumping out in front of wagons, breaking in to private property, the list goes on.
Tell me this, what would happen if some protestor were to jump out and suffer a seriously injury or worst still be killed by a wagon leaving the site, who would be to blame then? Shell because the wagon should not be on the road, or would shell to sea put their hands up and admit that their protests have been bordering in the insanity.
You are only fooling your selves by claiming that you protest in bellinaboy is peaceful .

by Sunny Day In Mayo Fri Apr 13, 2007 16:12

1 the shell refinery has not shut down - why - because it's not even built yet !!
2 work did not stop on site - protesters tried to gain access to the site but were stopped by a big green fence
3 gardai stopped some fools form trying to chain them selves to a moving truck - for their (the fools) own safety
4 it's a lovely sunny day in Mayo - yippee

by Mick Butler Fri Apr 13, 2007 16:35

People have stated time and again in Shell to Sea that if some thing unlawful is being perpetrated then the natural and obvious course of events is for the law to take it's course, it is known as "due process". Now there are a multiple of actions carried out by Shell that are of a dubious lawful nature, people on the ground are aware of these issues more than anyone else, perhaps something will yet come of this in the national courts or in Europe.

Due process also applies believe it or not to the law officers of the land, the Gardai, If illegal actions are in train the legal route and due process route requires charges backed by evidence to be processed through the courts of the land, and a hearing in open court that will ventiliate all of the issues in contention. That, Spectator is how a law based state is required to operate not through police assault with truncheons, dumping peple into ditches and breaking their knees and god knows what else.

Due procees and nothing else is what is required to deal with infringments of any law. Do you not agree law biding citizen ?

by nell Fri Apr 13, 2007 16:54

Define peaceful protest. A good gardai friend of mine is suffering the pain of a damaged knee after some idiot jumped on him. He was stationed up in Mayo to aid with the safety of the supporters and shell staff alike. His job is to protect people, that is what he does.
It's so easy to blame the gardai when someone gets hurt.....but betchya the supporters would be very quick to call them if their own business was being jepordised.

by Cormac Fri Apr 13, 2007 17:19

Here's a photo from yesterday's protest which was held by éirígí outside Bertie Ahern's constituency office as part of the ongoing campaign to defend Irish natural resources.

by William Fri Apr 13, 2007 17:23

Dear Spectator,
Imagine that you pull up in a car on a street in Dublin or Cork. A garda pulls up on his motorbike and informs you that you are stopped on a clearway and that you should move along at once. Now, you would probably move along, but just imagine that you didn't; imagine you said, "I'm just waiting for a friend, he'll be along in a minute". The garda would give you another warning and very soon he would be in a position to arrest you for obstructing traffic and faling to comply with a direction given by a garda. You could then be charged, summonsed to court and a judge would deal with you.

But imagine instead that the garda opened your car door, dragged you out, punched you, kicked you, twisted your finges until they broke, used abusive language and threatened to rape your wife/partner/husband*. Imagine further that several more gardai arrived, struck you with batons, threw you down into a puddle and had a good laugh. You might feel that this was not an appropriate police response to your law-breaking.

You seem confused about the term "peaceful protest". Standing or sitting in front of trucks or diggers is part of a long tradition of civil disobedience or direct action, and once there's no violence on the part of the protesters, then it clearly falls within the parameters of "peaceful protest".

When Ghandhi engaged in civil disobedience, he and hundreds of fellow-protesters were imprisoned. When people who live near Bellanaboy engaged in civil disobedience in 2005, five of them were jailed. But our Fianna Fail/PD government knows that imprisoning people will generate more support for the campaign, so the gardai are under instruction to beat up rather than arrest.

The government is taking advantage of the fact that, while being imprisoned is not perceived by the general public as bad protester behaviour, being beaten up gardai often is perceived as bad protester behaviour, because the media reports it as "scuffles" or as "violent protests".

(* the rape threats were made against a Rossport resident by a Mayo garda near the Bellanaboy refinery site last Autumn)

by Len Fri Apr 13, 2007 17:24

Define peaceful protest.

Well, Nell, assuming that your name, or even your story is true, people can check out on Youtube, (or else the DVD which shouldbe up there soon) what the cops think of peaceful protest. Under the direction of Sgt Conor O'Reilly they batoned people who were not hurting anyone, they did not attempt to arrest these people, they just dealt out pain and injury - no judge, no jury no paperwork. No law.

The idea of no arrests, just beating up protestors came from the top down, and it is not lawful. Gardai are hired to enforce the law, to arrest those who they think have broken it and let the courts decide guilt or innocence and then decide punishment if any. The Gardai are not the courts, and they shouldn't act like thugs.
I doubt your story about a garda being seriously injured.
If a protestor injured a garda he would be arrested and it would be in the media.
The gardai don't want to arrest people for blocking the road though, even though that is the lawful recourse. They are being politically directed, and they are doing propoganda work for Shell and the government by scaring off peaceful protest by combinations of intimidation, harrassment and full on baton charges.
Garda Sgt Dermot Butler is clearly visible on video ignoring calls to radio for help for a man whose knee was broken, and instead he can be seen tackling the man who asked for help and throwing him back into the ditch almost on top of the man whose knee was broken. That is not the behaviour of a decent Garda, but the behaviour of a thug with a uniform.

Spin all you like, but it's there on the record what tactics are being used by the Gardai.

by Nell Fri Apr 13, 2007 17:45

Hi Len,

Interesting, my comment (and indeed name) are doubtful because it doesn't fit your black and white view of the world :-)........how and ever lets assume them to be true in the interest in moving forward with our conversation as and if you'll accept I'd like to offer you my word that my friend who is a wonderful man was indeed injured in the course of duty, by a protester.

I support the concept of shell to sea. I don't support some of the tactics being employed by a subset of the other supporters.
I believe some of the tactics to be violent and dangerous. I've been to Mayo, I've seen it for myself.
I don't believe it to be an effective tool.

I don't believe all governement employees to be violent, law-breaking, people hating thugs. I see the world in shades of grey. I don't believe all supporters to be peaceful.
I think the one thing you can always always count on is that people are people. Some are decent, some are not and some are a mixture of both. And you find them on both sides of every fence.

The protests aren't all peacful, sad to say. Not all the gardai are as decent as my dear friend. It's not so black and white. Unfortunately it's not a case of one side being 100% right and the other 100% wrong.

I just want to add the grey into this picture. Because it exists.

I also give you my word on that ;-)

by Len Fri Apr 13, 2007 19:36

Hi "Nell",

interesting that you call my view black and white, yet it was only when challenged that you admit that
some gardai don't behave themselves... a bit different from the tone of your first quote. And you try to paint me as an absolutist, when I point out what you omitted. schoolboy error...

I know not all protestors are always peaceful, I have seen protestors threaten to thump Gardai and I quote " hit me one more time and you'll get that... just take off the uniform" But to be fair, he didn't thump the garda, even after the whacking he got - simply for standing in the road.

I don't really care if your name is Nell or not, I just think that you're spinning the situation, in referring to this supposed friend. I do not believe that anyone who assaults a Garda would (or should) get away with it. They are harrassing people up there for nothing on days when it's quite, and belting them on other days, and a lot of the tactics are deliberately designed to provoke hostile reactions in the hopes of getting someone on a public order charge, or assault against a garda.
They don't want to arrest anyone for blocking the road, cos, as made clear in the Garda Review, they don't want to make martyrs out of anyone for peaceful protest... but if they can do them for assault then they'd be only too delighted. That's why the sneaky punches are there, that's why Garda Greg Burke shoves his camera into _everyones_ face _every_ morning even though he has a zoom
He wants to piss them off, get them to lose their tempers. It's why the Gardai drag people across the road for asking Gardai simple questions. I witnessed this personally.

"I support the concept of shell to sea. I don't support some of the tactics being employed by a subset of the other supporters." (ah, yes, the vague, and well phrased smear and divide cliche. can you give details?)

"I believe some of the tactics to be violent and dangerous. I've been to Mayo, I've seen it for myself.
I don't believe it to be an effective tool."

Can you give an example? I don't count standing your ground when being pushed by Gardai as violence by the way. If you do nothing more than attempt to stay in the same spot without punching kicking or biting, then it's not violence.

"I don't believe all governement employees to be violent, law-breaking, people hating thugs. I see the world in shades of grey. I don't believe all supporters to be peaceful."

I never made such a claim. You ask me to take your word, yet you try to put words into my mouth... tsk tsk.
I see the range of Garda behaviour going on up there which includes :.
-from the garda in Achill who point blank refused to deploy to bellanaboy,
-the gardai who openly cried about the thuggish behaviour of their colleagues,
- the garda who tried to protect a protestor from the out of control Sgt O'Reilly when he was having a frenzy of belting people
- the ones who are obviously nervous and under pressure from above and ordered to draw batons, but did it anyway
- the likes of Conor O'Reilly and Sgt Butler who can be seen several times delighting in hurting people, causing provocation, refusing to call an ambulance etc. And the tall undercover guy, who merged with the protestors and then pushed one from behind into a garda... and was preparing to try it again until someone spotted him and alerted everyone else.. these are cold calculating thugs, and they bark orders at other gardai to "give him more pain" "get the one in the green", and this guy O'Reilly is on film using an extendable metal baton with a metal ball at the end to whcak people from behind. That too is on video... Aren't those things illegal? I thought they were the weapon of choice of football hooligans ?

"I think the one thing you can always always count on is that people are people. Some are decent, some are not and some are a mixture of both. And you find them on both sides of every fence."

"I just want to add the grey into this picture. Because it exists."

It's more than grey that you want to put into this picture. It's muddying the waters using language that mimics the voice of reason but is low on specifics or facts to back up the evidence, and claims that fly in the face of common sense. If any protestor breaks the law, there's enough gardai to arrest him, and courts to try him in. The Gardai are acting with impunity because they know that the Garda Siochana Complaints board is nothing more than a sham with no teeth.

by oh my Fri Apr 13, 2007 20:20

tut,tut.
Will you ever learn, the reason the gardai use force to move you out of the way, is because if they arrest you you would become a mayrtar.
I am fed up with my tax going to pay for the gardai presence in erris, as a previous poster put it, "if what shell are doing is illegal then stop them in the courts.
and dont be responsible for gardai being tied up keeping this site open!

by Seán Ryan Fri Apr 13, 2007 20:59

Making martyrs?

That's more than a bit lame. Considering that you are hinting that S2S's actions are both immoral and unlawful.

You reason that the S2S activists should not be prosecuted eventhough you believe they warrant it.

You reckon that the Gardaí should be allowed to act well outside and beyond the law, and you condone this.

Confused hardly describes it. Hypocrissy doesn't either.

Maybe you should run for office?

by Me Sat Apr 14, 2007 15:46

I see FG are postering Mayo in advance of election being called.
Isn't this illegal?
After all FG in Mayo has made so much of 'respect for the law' when it comes to
protesting against the gas refinery.

by cool j Sat Apr 14, 2007 16:13

Apparently not given that they continue to flout many of the conditions laid down by an board pleanala including their own traffic plan for hauling the peat, the total amount of peat being removed from the Bellanaboy site, the ongoing massive discharges of aluminium into local drinking water, numerious illegal developments carried out by Shell in the Rossport area over the last 2 years, the list goes on and on.

As for the gards - don't make me laugh, I know i wouldn't last too long in my job if i turned up to work most days reeking of drink - or worse being in charge of state vehicles.

Though maybe I'm being a bit naive expecting the "law" to apply equally to the individuals with the money and the power as it does to the little people!!