Solitaire flees from S2S, Hunger Strike enters Second Week, Shell Plan Expansion at Ballinaboy

mayo | rights, freedoms and repression | news report Tuesday September 16, 2008 23:54 by FSB! et al. - Rossport Solidarity Camp - Shell to Sea

Update from Glengad,Co. Mayo and Killybegs, Co. Donegal, 16th Sept.

As Maura Harrington's hunger strike entered its second week today, a delegation of Shell to Sea kayakers travelled yet again to Killybegs, Co. Donegal, to establish contact with Shell's pipe-laying ship the Solitaire. The purpose of the mission was to make contact with the Solitaire's bridge, and to ascertain its intentions regarding its departure from Irish waters. However, the Shell to Sea delegation did not expect the Solitaire to run away from them, which is what it did, thereby refusing all contact with Shell to Sea.

Maura Harrington's hunger strike will end when the Solitaire leaves Irish territorial waters, or else she will die.

A number of Shell to Sea campaigners travelled today to Killybegs, Co. Donegal with the intention of re-establishing contact with the Solitaire and ascertaining its intentions. Six kayakers in five vessels entered the water at about 1:30 pm and began paddling the 500m to where the Solitaire lay at anchor. Initial radio contact was established with the ship, but once they found out who was hailing them their response was radio silence, as had happened before last Sunday. Also, as the kayakers approached the ship, it weighed anchor and began to move away from the Shell to Sea party with increasing speed, fearful perhaps that the delegation wished to deliver written communications to the captain, Mr. Simon van der Plicht. Having been refused all forms of communication with the Solitaire, the Shell to Sea kayakers then had no other option but to return to dry land.

Also worthy of note was that there was no Garda presence in Killybegs when the action began, and that the Irish Naval service ship the LÉ Eithne was no longer in the bay or harbour.

Back at Glengad, Co. Mayo, Maura Harrington continued her hunger strike in her car outside the gates of Shell's proposed landfall site compound. Her hunger strike has now entered its second week, and will only end when the Solitaire leaves Irish territorial waters. The ordeal of the hunger strike is beginning to affect her,and her energy has been heavily sapped by the heavy interview demands of the mainstream media and the actively hostile actions of the cops and security inside and outside the compound gates. The 24-hour protective vigil mounted by the Shell to Sea campaign by her car at the gates continues, as her hunger strike continues through its eighth day, at the time of posting.