There has been a dramatic and potentially serious development in the long running community campaign in north Mayo against plans by Shell for an oil pipeline and onshore pumping station.
The protesters to date have fought an increasingly bitter struggle to defend their community, not just against Shell and its site and security staff but also in the face of a hostile government attitude manifest most glaringly in increasingly partisan policing of the situation.
People have been harassed, assaulted and several have been jailed over the past several years. Now one women has decided that enough is enough and has vowed to put her life on the line by engaging in a hunger strike.
A press statement on the Shell to Sea website says:
"Maura Harrington, Principal of Inver Primary School, situated beside Broadhaven Bay, has enough of broken promises, outright lies and the constant bullying of the local population by Shell, their Blue & Limes 'security guards' and their accomplices in the Irish government.
The 54-year-old woman from Erris, who has lived in the area all her life and is married to another member of the 'Shell to Sea' campaign, has gone on hunger strike to stop the construction of the gas pipeline and to draw attention to the way the countryside - including nature reserves - and the tightly knit rural community of northern Mayo are destroyed in order to give Shell what they want, regardless what the people think of it.
Maura Harrington began her hunger strike last Wednesday (September 10th), the day the world's largest pipelaying ship, the Solitaire (photo right) arrived in Broadhaven Bay, ready to start laying the pipeline. But work never got started that day and after a few hours in the bay, the massive vessel withdrew and sailed away to the port of Killybegs in Co. Donegal."
Full link here:
It says something for the ineptitude and intransigence of the Irish government that things have reached such a sorry state that the only weapon left open to a community is for committed individuals within it to adopt the most draconian form of direct action.
It is past time that the incumbents of Leinster House woke up to the damage to the community in north Mayo that their unholy alliance with Shell continues to cause.
See related Celtic News articles on this subject at:
J B Moffatt
Director of Information
Celtic League
14/09/08
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The Celtic League has branches in the six Celtic Countries. It works to promote cooperation between these countries and campaigns on a broad range of political, cultural and environmental matters. It highlights human rights abuse, monitors all military activity and focuses on socio-economic issues.
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