Shell 2 Sea stop drilling on an Special Area of Conservation

by Maura Harrington - S2S; Davitt League Wed Oct 24, 2007 13:48

Great to see this post - fair dues to all concerned!

Heavy machinery in and around that area seems to hold some type of fascination for us - we have to get up close and personal!!

Beir bua.

by none Wed Oct 24, 2007 13:57

http://www.npws.ie/ for detailed maps aerial photos and SAC areas.

by Niall Wed Oct 24, 2007 14:49

Well Done.

Superintendent Gilligan - happy to engage in selective application and abuse of the power of law. No surprise there.

Whose Cops? Shell's Cops.

by LP Wed Oct 24, 2007 15:43

Hold on. "...illegal work was being carried out. He (Gilligan) basically said that he didn’t care about any of it..." If the guards refuse to enforce the law, as sure as night follows day people will take the law into their own hands, and the guards will have only themselves to blame. This "get out of here, or else" bluff bullshit won't wash anymore. We all know the guards' hands are tied by the government. Except in exceptional circumstances, they aren't allowed to arrest us. We should be taking full advantage of that at every opportunity

by tco Wed Oct 24, 2007 20:06

Just so we have this clear -
the law is being broken, the watching superintendent is informed that the law is being broken,
not only does he then encourage further breaking of the law but he threatens the complainants.
What's his job again?

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1997/en/si/0094.html#zzs...997a1

38. Where an offence under these regulations has been committed by a body corporate and it is proved to have been so committed with the consent or connivance of, or, to be attributable to any neglect on the part of any person who, when the offence was committed, was a director, manager, secretary or other officer of the body corporate, or a person purporting to act in any such capacity, that person, as well as the body corporate, shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished as if guilty of the first-mentioned offence.

Penalties
39. A person who is guilty of an offence —
( a ) under Regulation 11 shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £1,000, or
( b ) under any other provision of these Regulations shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £1,500 or to 6 months imprisonment or to both.

For the record-
Complaints against RPS' activities should now be made at a garda station.

by ? Wed Oct 24, 2007 23:34

RPS excuse mt ignorance but what's that?

by SR Thu Oct 25, 2007 00:06

RPS are Shell's planning and engineering consultants.

by Joe Thu Oct 25, 2007 06:35

Excellent article and well done on the action but perhaps you should spell out the titles properly instead of using initials which may not be immediately clear to the rest of us. I presume SAC means Special Area of Conservation and not Sea Angling Club?

by gav - tnc corcaí Thu Oct 25, 2007 11:19

Shell Are Criminals!
System Assisting Corporations!
Subdue All Citizens!

because its definitely not an area of special conservation - unless your on about conserving shells profits - shame on all you useless politician's! shell chun sáile abú!

by Jim Thu Oct 25, 2007 18:33

I see the penalties have been posted but exactly what law has been broken ??

by tco Thu Oct 25, 2007 19:58

Jim,
I won't bore you with lengthy details. You can read it yourself in sections 14 etc.

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1997/en/si/0094.html#zzs...997a1

by JM Thu Oct 25, 2007 21:34 Rossport

More details of the Glengad drilling operation

map showing borehole locations

borehole number 1

traffic damage

drilling in operation

by Northern Light Thu Oct 25, 2007 21:35

Can't An Taisce or Coastwatch or some organisation that actually cares about the coastal SAC's get an injunction to stop the drilling? Sounds compleately ridiculas (from a legal pointof view) that the solidarity camp has to close because it's on an SAC but even more harmful drilling can go ahead in the next field...

by JM Thu Oct 25, 2007 21:41 Rossport

four more

remnants of the Solidarity Camp viewed from the drilling site

Vincent McGrath showing the SAC map and drilling area

stopping work on the drilling machine

on top of the rig

by JM Thu Oct 25, 2007 21:46 Rossport

last four

the overall scene

drilling gear being removed

Gardai leaving

local people leaving

by jj Thu Oct 25, 2007 22:48

Now we know why Mayo CC were in such a hurry to remove the Solidarity Camp.

The blatant hypocrisy and double-standards of the officials in MCC has to be seen to be believed.

I trust this episode will be remembered for the next occasion when MCC officials claim to be
acting to protect the environment.
They certainly managed to fool the judge who ordered the removal of the campsite. He will hopefully
be reminded of such when the time comes.
Where are the same officials now, when the SAC is being damaged by Shell and their
henchmen?

by Maura Harrington - S2S; Davitt League Fri Oct 26, 2007 00:57

I hope that Mr. Peter Sweetman and Ms. Monica Muller have acted as appropriate with regard to the overt damage done to this SAC at Glengad.

Perhaps they will inform indy readers of their sterling efforts backed up, as is their wont, by a paper trail to that effect.

I await their response with interest ...

by Precious Fri Oct 26, 2007 11:31

Let me just make the point that the name of the campaign says what it means and means what it says.

We shouldn't assume that people, especially new readers, know what 'S2S' or 'Shell 2 Sea' means. And it serves no purpose to shorten the name. It's not that long a name that it's cumbersome to write it. Take care with the name of the campaign, it's important.

Just stick with 'Shell to Sea', leave it at that and avoid any confusion.

by Teddy Fri Oct 26, 2007 12:42

RPS are supposed to be highly paid professional consultants yet it seems they can't even read a map.

'An RPS employee told the group that they believed they weren’t on the SAC and that the maps they had received from RPS showed they weren’t on the SAC.'

What a joke!

by Che O'Neill Fri Oct 26, 2007 22:15

Be prepared for an escalation in direct action over this and other attempts to dictate to the people of the West of Ireland and indeed the 32 counties of Ireland by the state and foreign interests, that we will not accept this and will do what ever it takes to defend our community from the actions of Shell and their private "Garda" army.

by Maura Harrington - S2S; Davitt League Mon Oct 29, 2007 12:57

How strange that there's no been no response from this pair to my original and subsequent posts; then again, perhaps not - they may be busy away from Rossport which may, or may not be their 'locality' depending on the definition of the word ...

Perhaps also, it being a bank holiday weekend, I may or may not be receiving a legal missive tomorrow, another favoured tactic of theirs.

Be that as it may, I would advise any communities currently being 'represented' by either/or of the above and, equally, communities who have past experience of such 'representation' to watch this space.

On Thursday last week on Mid West Radio a direct challenge was issued to Shell's PR John Egan to come on air the following day to address the Shell lie of 300/350 local (Parich of Kilcommom) jobs currently in place at Ballinaboy. Mr. Egan didn't show ... One can draw ones own conclusions.

Similarily, I believe, one could draw interesting conclusions from continued no-comment to Indy by Mr. Sweetman and Ms. Muller.

Watch this space ....

by Northern Light Tue Oct 30, 2007 17:44

Lorna Siggins in the TImes of Friday 26th of October 2007 writes that they (RPS) have said the "oversight" was due to "miscommunication", both within their own company and Shell E&P Ireland.

In other words Shell told them to go ahead and drill in the SAC and the clowns went ahead and did it. Of course they knew what they were doing. They have to read maps all the time. Before even looking at maps they could have guessed it was an SAC.

My take on it is that they just presupposed that since Shell have FF/Greens, Independant Media and IBEC dancing to their tune that all would be cosy and they'd be in and out in no time.

by joe c. Tue Oct 30, 2007 20:11

"Miscommunication is one particular case of a lack of alignment of agents' mental state, specifically one in which they diverge on the occurrence or results of communication"
- and they can't read a map either. Sums up RPS very neatly.

http://tecfa.unige.ch/tecfa/research/cscps/Papers/Aaai9....html

by joe c. Tue Oct 30, 2007 20:21

report in Mayo News -
http://www.mayonews.ie/index.php?option=com_content&tas...id=38

and
http://www.friendsoftheirishenvironment.net/paperstoday...10667

by Maura Harrington - S2S; Davitt League Tue Oct 30, 2007 23:13

I have tried, through this forum, to elicit a response from Peter Sweetman and Monica Muller regarding their action/inaction in protecting the SAC at Glengad about which one and/or both were vociferous regarding the Rossport Solidarity Camp which as you know was attested against by affidavit of Karen Gaynor to the Circuit Court swearing that it would take 15 YEARS for grasses to re-establish themselves at a part of the RSC.

The people of Rossport and other areas, as you are no doubt aware, employed the services of Mr. Sweetman in August 2001 for which services he was paid; the same people, with the exception of Ms. Muller, dipensed with Mr. Sweetman's services in mid 2002 following which there has been no basis for Mr. Sweetman to claim that he is 'representing' local communities.

Given that neither Mr. Sweetman nor Ms. Muller have taken the opportunity offered through this forum to comment would FIE please clarify the following:

Is Peter Sweetman still associated with/a member of FIE and does he act with the imprimatur of FIE?

Is Ms. Muller associated with/a member of FIE and does she act with FIE imprimatur?

In what way has FIE supported either the Rossport Five or the Shell to Sea campaign or, indeed, local people associated with neither of the aforementioned since mid 2002?

Did FIE discuss and sanction the action of Sweetman and Muller in settling their part of proceedings in the Shell-instigated High Court case still being addressed by local people Bríd McGarry, Brendan Philbin, Philip McGrath and Willie Corduff?

Why have press links to S2S coverage been provided by FIE only since my first post re Sweetman and Muller appeared on Friday last, 26th October??

I look forward to your early response through this forum.

by Blase(hun) Mon Nov 05, 2007 18:12 luprachanblase at gmail dot com

Just cant belive that,garda should protect you from people,organisations who brakes the law.

by Marie Sat Nov 10, 2007 18:14

Am following the story from Argentina, well done to all, I hope one day I can be there to join you. Keep up the good work.

by Ethel Corduff - Supporter Shell to Sea Tue Dec 04, 2007 02:03

Well done Maura, for trying to get comments from Peter Sweetman and Monica Muller. Regarding Peter Sweetman I was shocked to read that he was involved against so many planning applications all over the country. I can't recall the exact number but it was dozens. His was the sole protest which stopped the development at Knock airport, yet he has a Dublin address and no involvment with the area, and as you say no longer involved with the Rossport community either. Sounds like he has moved on to fresh pastures.
As for Ms Muller her letters to the press were very nasty and hateful especially towards the solidarity camp. I wrote several replies to them but unfortunately they were not published.
After getting her legal fees paid by Shell I see she has her own solicitor in the commonage dispute against them. Self interest again. She is a Lone Ranger now, Naturally she can not join the others! Peter Sweetman is not involved publically this time. Who will Monica get to pay her costs this time? Perhaps Friends of the Environment!

by Tony Tue Dec 04, 2007 08:47

Objecting to planning can be a very lucrative pastime. Occasionally one will get a 'strike' where the developer is willing to 'compensate' the objector to withdraw the planning objection.
There are several well-known serial objectors in this country (Irl.).

by paddy1 - Alien in your own country Sun Jul 26, 2009 22:27

Ireland is unique in having a planning appeals board - right? My associates in planning working in the U.K. and the U.S seem to think no other country operates such an organisation as Board Pleanala. It is seen as the ultimate expression of democracy but surely, if the local authorities were doing their job properly there would be no need for such an organisation..
I was interested in the last comment about persons going round objecting to developments being in line for remuneration if they don't go ahead with the objection and there are numerous individuals going round following this line of business...could we be forewarned with a list of names of those prepared to be "bought?"

Perhaps a new subject could be introduced...responsible town and country planning/how to challenge a planning decision.

by John Sat Jun 12, 2010 18:54

Excellent article and well done.