In my opinion, the gardai are most certainly protecting Shell's interests byarresting the fishermen. The gardai have been protecting Shell's interests,ever since the Corrib project started. Take the incident with the breaking of the windscreen of the poor old teacher on her own in the car and four or five gardai smashing away at it. Not to mention all the other bullying of the people of Erris. The gardai have disgraced our Country, along with the crocked politicians. We are the talk of the World, it is so embarrasing. I could go on and on, but my blood preasure would just go higher and higher.
Mayoman - 17 years ago
People are being killed in Dublin and Limerick and shot in Waterford. You can drive the length of the island without seeing a Garda checkpoint for dangerous driving and yet the Garda Commissioner tells us he has no resources but he can put 100 Gardaí in rural Glengad, Co. Mayo to protect a private business. For Shell or not, this is an absolute abuse of Garda time.
James Roberts - 17 years ago
It's a disgrace that the roles of the Navy and the Gardai have been perverted by the same corrupt politicians who gave away our gas rights.
That gas rightfully belonged to Ireland, and they gave up their stake in it for nothing. Contrast that to the deal Tony'OReilly is doing off Clare, he is letting someone else drill 'his' (our gas) and only giving them 40% stake in return.
It's robbery, opposed by good people, and enforced by heavy handed Garda tactics. Bertie and Ray Bourke should be in Garda custody, not the good people of Rossport.
Garry Mc Auliffe - 17 years ago
If we saw the brutailty on TV from Africa or other parts of the world that we see in mayo we would be horrified and complaining to the goverment to do something about it.It is hard to believe in this day that it is done with the approval of our goverment .
observer - 17 years ago
Are the gardaí protecting Shell's interests over the public by arresting the two fishermen?
The Gardai have been protecting the interests of corrupt politicians and misguided capitalists for the last eight years in relation to Corrib Gas, and, without education, will continue to act in a misguided way, not interested in whether they are doing the right thing or not. All the dummies are worried about is that they continue to be paid overtime for going on duty in North Mayo. When the Gardai at Glengad are asked if they are capable of thinking for themselves their reply is always ' we're not paid to think'. The Gardai know nothing and care less about the heritage, culture and local traditions as most of them are only there for the cash to spend on filling their bellies with massive amounts of alcohol each night in hotels in Belmullet and Bangor Erris many miles from where they are transported each day to Glengad to bully, intimidate, disrupt and distress the locals. Protection is a one-way thing in relation to Sruth Fada Conn and its not the public they are protecting. Sad situation all round. The unsustainability to homo sapiens of continuing to burn fossil fuels to support an ever increasing demand for 'energy' for the greedy 'developed' world never registers in the minds of these 'brain dead' alcoholic morons.
jimmy coyle - 17 years ago
The beautiful area of erris is now a police state, are the police there to protect the people of this island or are they a private security thug organisation working for shell? this "garda" police force is paid by tax payers money (thats me and you) and the government would do well to remember this- especially in this time of recession! shell got the oil and gas for free, were given land for free to build on and now we have to pay for their "security" company too! come on people, do the maths, not one person elected to the dail has come out asking questions about how all our natural resorces are being given away for free?? does'nt this strike you as odd? why is everyone keeping quiet about this? are we really that rich a country that we can just give it away? if this is true how come we have
: 2nd largest classroom sizes in the whole of europe?
: health service on the verge of collapse!
:10-12 BILLION euro in the red by the end of the year!
:dole numbers are at a 10 year high!
:people with negative equity
i can go on and on and on! im no genius but its obvious to me we cant give all our natural resources away, if you read this and feel as strongly as i do about this please ask your local td why this was given away for free- our kids futures depends on what we do now!
one woman has decided to take a final stand against all of this and she has to be respected for her bravery! maura we are all behind you!
please visit www.corribsos.com for all the facts.
regards
jimmy coyle
jimmy coyle
Martin - 17 years ago
I can't understand people in general. If these 'fishermen' were intimidating other people then they were breaking the law. This is no different than if your child was been bullied in school or if a person is been bullied in work. The problem here is not whether the government gave away a resource and that shell are goning to make money on it but people are harasing and bulling other irish men and women who just want to do their daily jobs. This is against the law and the Gardai were right to arrest these men just as I would want them to arrest anyone if they were intimidating or bulling my wife or my father or mother. Bulling gets people nowhere folks and just because one side is doing it doesn't make it right for us to do it back!
Joe Hickey - 17 years ago
I live in Moyross in Limerick. Never in our darkest days did we have an adequate garda presence- we still don't. There seems to be no shortage however of Garda in Mayo. I suppose then we were only working people not a huge multinational that needed protecting. as I speak a woman despite me personally calling the garda several times in openly selling Heroin on my street corner. Yet no Garda to be seen. Maybe our Gardai are in Mayo?
Margaret O'Regan - 17 years ago
Shame on RTE television and radio for not giving Maura Harrington's hungerstrike fair, or any, coverage.
Tom - 17 years ago
Having watched the footage on TV3 of the Gardai viciously batoning the car of a protester,who posed no threat to anybody,you have to conclude they are nothing more than the goons of the state and big business and certainly not the friends of ordinary decent people.
Louise Doyle - 17 years ago
The Gardai and shell should be ashamed of themselves attacking innocent people. it is very obvious that the government are getting handouts from shell.
I am a retired inspector for the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) in Ireland (SIPTU is the Irish ITF affiliate) and this enables me to look up the pipe laying vessel SOLITAIRE, used by Shell Ireland. The SOLITAiRE (IMO Regd No 7129049) operates under a Panamanian Flag of Convenience and the vessel owners refuse to sign an agreement with the ITF which sets out minimum wages and conditions for the crew. Bad luck to you Shell Ireland for bringing such a vessel to Ireland.
T Ayton 087 6794426
Pat - 17 years ago
No.! They are protecting the law abiding citizens of this country against the rantings of SF/IRA activists
JustSomeGuy - 17 years ago
They use taxpayers money to act against the fiscal interests of the taxpayer. Having blown the boom, Now, In a time of rising energy prices and recession, They give away our share of a huge gas find, then get the gardai to beat us up if we protest, then send us the gardai overtime bill and the bill for building a pipeline to the UK through which most of this gas will probably go to help feed Britain's energy needs. We're still stupid paddies in service to large corporations and our British masters as far as I can see. Bertie helped to destroy our exploration terms too. Surely current energy prices and the fact that two crooked politicians were involved in this is grounds for re-negotiation of terms??
You should read the CPI report for yourself. at
http://www.publicinquiry.ie/reports.php
It shows how bertie and ray burke helped rob us all of our gas
We need strong government like the russians to deal with shell but all we have are spineless political weasels who call themselves Irishmen. Bah!
richard wescott - 17 years ago
Again, the gardai fail in their job of serving the public. If that is what they are paid for. Our govt. are of course receiving quite substantial monetary sums from this corporate giant so naturally they are not going to let any civillian stand in their way and will show force as has been shown by the gardai. To simplify things for the less informed, Shell has been involved in numerous human rights violations accross the globe, but has always been protected by corrupte politicians who are in a position to sweep info under the rug out of the publics eyes. It is hard to fight against a multi-billion dollar entity, almost impossible. They have have no morals and all govt.'s do fall in line with their demands. The information about this company's corruption is out their, but one has to look for it. Our govt. and gardai are just following their orders as so many have done before them. But then again, our politicans have never been held truly responsible for any crimes they've all committed and will. Scum!
John O'Grady - 17 years ago
It is completely beyond me how Oil Company can make us of the national police force quell protest when the country is over run by criminals. Does this police force consider this to be a proper use of taxpayer’s money?
Sean - 17 years ago
The Gardai need to reconsider if they are the protecters of peace and justice or the tools of higher rankings.
emma sharma-Hayes - 17 years ago
not only are guards working for shell to sea, they are also working in favour of the NRA on the M3 through the tara skryne valley. They are up holiding laws that they should be objecting to themsleves, ie the gas pipes in Ross Port and the butchering of the hill of Tara.
thank you
Emma Sharma-Hayes
torch light - 17 years ago
The definition of community consent as espoused by Shell to Sea, Pobal Cill Chomain, Rossport Five and Pat O Donnell is that if one person dissents, then nothing can happen. For example, Pat O Donnell negogiated as part of the Erris Inshore Fishermen Association with Shell. When they reached an agreement that he disagreed with (which he is entitled to do) he resigned from the fishermans association and calimed that Shell lacked "community consent". Every other fisherman, with the exception of Pat's son, are happy to abide with the agreement. The Gardai are protecting the right of the community to have majority consent trump the lack of consent of disaffected people. I live in the area. I know that out of a population of approximately 9,000 people, locally based protesteres would number approximately 100. At most.
indymedaia reader - 17 years ago
It's been clear for a while to anyone watching the police operation in Erris that the gardai are not being neutral.
They are there to protect Shell's interests- not to police the community.
This is damaging the way the gardaí are perceived in other parts of the country.
jonijoe - 17 years ago
This gas field was given away for nothing by a corrupt government (Ray Burke) ,and is been protected by the forces of law and order of the same government is a joke.I would like to see the gardai do what they are paid for and tackle the real criminals of this country.If they tackled them with the same zeal as the attacked the protesters something might change in this country.Shame on us the public for letting this happen.
In my opinion, the gardai are most certainly protecting Shell's interests byarresting the fishermen. The gardai have been protecting Shell's interests,ever since the Corrib project started. Take the incident with the breaking of the windscreen of the poor old teacher on her own in the car and four or five gardai smashing away at it. Not to mention all the other bullying of the people of Erris. The gardai have disgraced our Country, along with the crocked politicians. We are the talk of the World, it is so embarrasing. I could go on and on, but my blood preasure would just go higher and higher.
People are being killed in Dublin and Limerick and shot in Waterford. You can drive the length of the island without seeing a Garda checkpoint for dangerous driving and yet the Garda Commissioner tells us he has no resources but he can put 100 Gardaí in rural Glengad, Co. Mayo to protect a private business. For Shell or not, this is an absolute abuse of Garda time.
It's a disgrace that the roles of the Navy and the Gardai have been perverted by the same corrupt politicians who gave away our gas rights.
That gas rightfully belonged to Ireland, and they gave up their stake in it for nothing. Contrast that to the deal Tony'OReilly is doing off Clare, he is letting someone else drill 'his' (our gas) and only giving them 40% stake in return.
It's robbery, opposed by good people, and enforced by heavy handed Garda tactics. Bertie and Ray Bourke should be in Garda custody, not the good people of Rossport.
If we saw the brutailty on TV from Africa or other parts of the world that we see in mayo we would be horrified and complaining to the goverment to do something about it.It is hard to believe in this day that it is done with the approval of our goverment .
Are the gardaí protecting Shell's interests over the public by arresting the two fishermen?
The Gardai have been protecting the interests of corrupt politicians and misguided capitalists for the last eight years in relation to Corrib Gas, and, without education, will continue to act in a misguided way, not interested in whether they are doing the right thing or not. All the dummies are worried about is that they continue to be paid overtime for going on duty in North Mayo. When the Gardai at Glengad are asked if they are capable of thinking for themselves their reply is always ' we're not paid to think'. The Gardai know nothing and care less about the heritage, culture and local traditions as most of them are only there for the cash to spend on filling their bellies with massive amounts of alcohol each night in hotels in Belmullet and Bangor Erris many miles from where they are transported each day to Glengad to bully, intimidate, disrupt and distress the locals. Protection is a one-way thing in relation to Sruth Fada Conn and its not the public they are protecting. Sad situation all round. The unsustainability to homo sapiens of continuing to burn fossil fuels to support an ever increasing demand for 'energy' for the greedy 'developed' world never registers in the minds of these 'brain dead' alcoholic morons.
The beautiful area of erris is now a police state, are the police there to protect the people of this island or are they a private security thug organisation working for shell? this "garda" police force is paid by tax payers money (thats me and you) and the government would do well to remember this- especially in this time of recession! shell got the oil and gas for free, were given land for free to build on and now we have to pay for their "security" company too! come on people, do the maths, not one person elected to the dail has come out asking questions about how all our natural resorces are being given away for free?? does'nt this strike you as odd? why is everyone keeping quiet about this? are we really that rich a country that we can just give it away? if this is true how come we have
: 2nd largest classroom sizes in the whole of europe?
: health service on the verge of collapse!
:10-12 BILLION euro in the red by the end of the year!
:dole numbers are at a 10 year high!
:people with negative equity
i can go on and on and on! im no genius but its obvious to me we cant give all our natural resources away, if you read this and feel as strongly as i do about this please ask your local td why this was given away for free- our kids futures depends on what we do now!
one woman has decided to take a final stand against all of this and she has to be respected for her bravery! maura we are all behind you!
please visit www.corribsos.com for all the facts.
regards
jimmy coyle
jimmy coyle
I can't understand people in general. If these 'fishermen' were intimidating other people then they were breaking the law. This is no different than if your child was been bullied in school or if a person is been bullied in work. The problem here is not whether the government gave away a resource and that shell are goning to make money on it but people are harasing and bulling other irish men and women who just want to do their daily jobs. This is against the law and the Gardai were right to arrest these men just as I would want them to arrest anyone if they were intimidating or bulling my wife or my father or mother. Bulling gets people nowhere folks and just because one side is doing it doesn't make it right for us to do it back!
I live in Moyross in Limerick. Never in our darkest days did we have an adequate garda presence- we still don't. There seems to be no shortage however of Garda in Mayo. I suppose then we were only working people not a huge multinational that needed protecting. as I speak a woman despite me personally calling the garda several times in openly selling Heroin on my street corner. Yet no Garda to be seen. Maybe our Gardai are in Mayo?
Shame on RTE television and radio for not giving Maura Harrington's hungerstrike fair, or any, coverage.
Having watched the footage on TV3 of the Gardai viciously batoning the car of a protester,who posed no threat to anybody,you have to conclude they are nothing more than the goons of the state and big business and certainly not the friends of ordinary decent people.
The Gardai and shell should be ashamed of themselves attacking innocent people. it is very obvious that the government are getting handouts from shell.
I am a retired inspector for the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) in Ireland (SIPTU is the Irish ITF affiliate) and this enables me to look up the pipe laying vessel SOLITAIRE, used by Shell Ireland. The SOLITAiRE (IMO Regd No 7129049) operates under a Panamanian Flag of Convenience and the vessel owners refuse to sign an agreement with the ITF which sets out minimum wages and conditions for the crew. Bad luck to you Shell Ireland for bringing such a vessel to Ireland.
T Ayton 087 6794426
No.! They are protecting the law abiding citizens of this country against the rantings of SF/IRA activists
They use taxpayers money to act against the fiscal interests of the taxpayer. Having blown the boom, Now, In a time of rising energy prices and recession, They give away our share of a huge gas find, then get the gardai to beat us up if we protest, then send us the gardai overtime bill and the bill for building a pipeline to the UK through which most of this gas will probably go to help feed Britain's energy needs. We're still stupid paddies in service to large corporations and our British masters as far as I can see. Bertie helped to destroy our exploration terms too. Surely current energy prices and the fact that two crooked politicians were involved in this is grounds for re-negotiation of terms??
You should read the CPI report for yourself. at
http://www.publicinquiry.ie/reports.php
It shows how bertie and ray burke helped rob us all of our gas
We need strong government like the russians to deal with shell but all we have are spineless political weasels who call themselves Irishmen. Bah!
Again, the gardai fail in their job of serving the public. If that is what they are paid for. Our govt. are of course receiving quite substantial monetary sums from this corporate giant so naturally they are not going to let any civillian stand in their way and will show force as has been shown by the gardai. To simplify things for the less informed, Shell has been involved in numerous human rights violations accross the globe, but has always been protected by corrupte politicians who are in a position to sweep info under the rug out of the publics eyes. It is hard to fight against a multi-billion dollar entity, almost impossible. They have have no morals and all govt.'s do fall in line with their demands. The information about this company's corruption is out their, but one has to look for it. Our govt. and gardai are just following their orders as so many have done before them. But then again, our politicans have never been held truly responsible for any crimes they've all committed and will. Scum!
It is completely beyond me how Oil Company can make us of the national police force quell protest when the country is over run by criminals. Does this police force consider this to be a proper use of taxpayer’s money?
The Gardai need to reconsider if they are the protecters of peace and justice or the tools of higher rankings.
not only are guards working for shell to sea, they are also working in favour of the NRA on the M3 through the tara skryne valley. They are up holiding laws that they should be objecting to themsleves, ie the gas pipes in Ross Port and the butchering of the hill of Tara.
thank you
Emma Sharma-Hayes
The definition of community consent as espoused by Shell to Sea, Pobal Cill Chomain, Rossport Five and Pat O Donnell is that if one person dissents, then nothing can happen. For example, Pat O Donnell negogiated as part of the Erris Inshore Fishermen Association with Shell. When they reached an agreement that he disagreed with (which he is entitled to do) he resigned from the fishermans association and calimed that Shell lacked "community consent". Every other fisherman, with the exception of Pat's son, are happy to abide with the agreement. The Gardai are protecting the right of the community to have majority consent trump the lack of consent of disaffected people. I live in the area. I know that out of a population of approximately 9,000 people, locally based protesteres would number approximately 100. At most.
It's been clear for a while to anyone watching the police operation in Erris that the gardai are not being neutral.
They are there to protect Shell's interests- not to police the community.
This is damaging the way the gardaí are perceived in other parts of the country.
This gas field was given away for nothing by a corrupt government (Ray Burke) ,and is been protected by the forces of law and order of the same government is a joke.I would like to see the gardai do what they are paid for and tackle the real criminals of this country.If they tackled them with the same zeal as the attacked the protesters something might change in this country.Shame on us the public for letting this happen.