Menu
Ireland's political and cultural magazine
— village December 2009 - January 2010
Gazing out at the blue... from Rossport, 2009
(ABP) has rejected the
proposed route for the Corrib pipeline as
“unacceptable” on safety grounds. The ruling
was unequivocal: houses along the route were
“within the hazard range of the pipeline should
a failure occur”, while “design documentation”
and “risk assessment” fail to “present a com-
plete, transparent and adequate demonstration
that the pipeline does not pose an unacceptable
risk to the public”. The decision also noted that
Shell failed to include part of the onshore pipe-
line route in its application. The ruling vindi-
cated a ten-year campaign which has seen local
residents become experts on complex, techni-
cal aspects of gas production, while they also
learnt a thing or two about state persecution
and political treachery.
While An Bord Pleanála’s statement clearly
dismissed the project in its current form, it also
contained a disturbing conclusion, that “pro-
visionally” the board would “approve the pro-
posed onshore pipeline development should
certain ‘alterations’ be made”.
Shell must respond by February but
their options are limited as the company has
already discounted alternative routes on finan-
cial and environmental grounds.
If the board decision vindicated the cam-
paign to halt the project on health and safety
grounds, the Garda Ombudsman Commission
report performed the same service on the issue
of civil disobedience. The Commission upheld
% of complaints by citizens against gardaí,
acknowledging that the number and nature of
complaints were unprecedented.
From the commonage in Rossport to the
refinery site at Bellanaboy; from the solidar-
ity camp at Glengad to the high seas beyond,
gardaí display deference and loyalty to Shell,
while acting aggressively against local people
engaged in civil disobedience. Colm Henry,
a resident of Glengad, made a complaint to
gardaí in when Shell security repeatedly
filmed his grandchildren as they undressed on
Glengad beach. Inspector John Gilligan prom-
ised to do something about it. “If this was hap-
pening near my home I’d probably be doing the
very same as you are” confided Gilligan. The
garda complaint was followed by more intense
surveillance as security workers returned with
cameras and binoculars focused on the Henry
household. The following day, when Mr Henry
returned to the garda station, Inspector Gilligan
threw his hands in the air: “I know what you’re
going to tell me”, he said, “I’m really sorry about
it”. Henry believes that Gilligan was genuinely
unhappy at the situation but was powerless
to interfere with Shell’s security operation.
Gilligan’s prior assurances to the Henry family
arose from personal assurances from a senior
Shell employee, an entirely inappropriate pro-
cedure from a member of the gardaí.
On another occasion, members of the com-
munity obstructed drilling work by Shell on a
Special Area of Conservation (SAC) but when
police arrived they ordered the locals to leave
under threat of arrest and allowed Shell to
resume work.
The Garda Ombudsman Commission for-
warded seven files to the DPP of which one case
resulted in a recommendation of punishment
against a senior garda. The complaints
made to the commission represent only a small
sample of popular grievances. The Ombudsman
Commission’s press spokesman, Graham Doyle,
explained that a survey identified two factors
which kept many people from making formal
complaints: people believed nothing would be
done or that it would make matters worse for
them in relation to the Gardai.
Garda sources have consistently given state-
ments to the press which indicate their loyalty
to the developer: “If we didn’t have some of
the outside agitators coming in there wouldn’t
be a problem with the handful of locals that
oppose the project”, Supt Michael Larkin told
the Sunday Times.
In late November fisherman Pat O’Donnell
received a curt letter from Superintendent
Larkin at Belmullet garda station, informing
him that “the DPP has directed that there will
be no prosecution in relation to the sinking of
the Iona Isle”, a reference to O’Donnell’s boat,
which was sunk last June. At the time of the
incident garda and media speculated freely
that O’Donnell had scuttled his own boat,
with solid leads being pursued and imminent
arrests ahead. The bluster concluded with the
-word statement above, which the media
duly ignored. There is no indication that the
garda inquiry into the lost boat extended to
private security operatives at Glengad who
allegedly recruited Irishman Michael Dwyer
for a Bolivian mission ,which resulted in his
death. A recent Prime Time report into the
Dwyer affair showed Dwyer’s boss, Eduardo
Rozsa Flores, angrily lamenting on camera a
missed opportunity to blow up a boat carry-
ing members of the Bolivian government. Just
a coincidence?
Christmas came early to Mayo and Pat
O’Donnell received another letter, this time
inviting him to a festive dinner for “stakehold-
ers and supporters” of the Corrib gas project.
This belated counter-factual acknowledgment
of O’Donnell’s “support” for the project is apt
recognition that the hard work of many Erris
residents will secure a safer gas project, its
terms renegotiated to ensure a better deal for
the Irish state.
Rossport
“Garda sources
have consistently
given statements
to the press which
indicate their
loyalty to the
developer”
An Bord Pleanála and the Garda Ombudsman criticise Shell
and the gardai respectively
m i c h a e l m c c a u g h a n
