The Guardian (UK): Jailing of Irish villagers sparks anger as farmers defy Shell in Battle of the Bog: Support swells for opponents of gas pipeline imprisoned for contempt of court: “It began as a hopeless mismatch: a handful of villagers in remote north-west Mayo taking on the multinational Shell. But the Battle of the Bog has turned into one of the biggest protests against Shell in Europe…”: “Thousands of people have gathered at demonstrations… Hundreds more have picketed garages, signed petitions and urged a petrol boycott.”: Monday 18 July 2005

Angelique Chrisafis, Ireland correspondent

Monday July 18, 2005

It began as a hopeless mismatch: a handful of villagers in remote north-west Mayo taking on the multinational Shell. But the Battle of the Bog has turned into one of the biggest protests against Shell in Europe after five villagers were jailed for refusing the company access to their land because they feared a proposed gas pipeline was unsafe.

Subsistence farmers from Rossport accuse Shell of turning them into "human guinea pigs" by building a £600m high-pressure gas pipeline near their homes.

While the men and women stood on their land and refused the company entry until their safety concerns were met, the Celtic Tiger Ireland looked the other way. But when Shell took five villagers to the high court in Dublin and saw them jailed "indefinitely" for obstructing the company's work, the country was outraged.

Now the Bogoni - named after the Ogoni people who fought Shell in Nigeria - have spent 18 days in jail and seen their support swell. Thousands of people have gathered at demonstrations, including the novelist Jennifer Johnston.

Hundreds more have picketed garages, signed petitions and urged a petrol boycott. Shell has agreed to temporarily suspend work in north Mayo, where crowds were protesting every day and the government has ordered a health and safety review of the proposed pipeline. But the jailed men refuse to back down.

Three are small-scale farmers, eking what living they can from poor-quality peaty land in Rossport in the Bog of Erris.

Two are retired schoolteachers, including a pensioner who has had a triple heart bypass. They represent the Gaelic-speaking community decimated by poverty and emigration, which the government has vowed to protect. According to their MP, they are "decent people" with no previous criminal records.

A high court judge jailed them indefinitely, until they "purge their contempt" and agree to let Shell on to their land after compulsory purchase procedures. But the standoff continues.

Broadhaven Bay in Mayo is wild and unspoilt, a breeding ground for whales and dolphins. Gas was found off the coast nine years ago and Shell's plan is to land the gas on the beach at Broadhaven and pipe it five miles inland for processing, through the peat of the Bog of Erris.

Residents describe the bog as "wobbly as blancmange". Two years ago there was a big landslide which locals blamed on the construction of a radar station. The protesters want the gas processed on an offshore shallow water platform instead.

"This is not about protecting land, it's a question of protecting our basic right to live safely," said Mary Corduff, whose husband, Willie, has been jailed.

Shell says the majority of Mayo residents and businesses had supported the pipeline during extensive consultation schemes. But protesters argue that in this part of Ireland, people cling to any scheme they believe will bring jobs. In the 70s, a priest campaigned to have a nuclear power station built on the Bog of Erris, believing it would bring health and prosperity.

"Community spirit here was torn apart by Shell," Mrs Corduff said. "But the imprisonment of villagers has galvanised everybody back together again. Shell doesn't understand community or neighbourly life. They thought jailing people would weaken us, it has strengthened us."

Werner Blau, a physics professor at Trinity College, Dublin, and part-time Rossport resident, told protesters the pipeline would not comply with US standards which were "pretty lax".

In August 2000, a gas pipeline exploded in New Mexico and killed 12 people. Last year an explosion in a natural gas pipeline in Belgium killed 15 and injured 120.

One of the imprisoned men, Micheál Ó Seighin, 65, told the Guardian before he was jailed that villagers felt "like Chicken Licken: we are waiting for the sky to fall down on our heads".

Jerry Cowley, the independent MP for Mayo, said: "The small man is being trampled into the ground."

Michael Ring of Fine Gael said Ireland was now living in a "dictatorship within a democracy".

Some local workers on the project have downed tools in protest. One security guard who resigned his post with Shell said: "I didn't agree with the company being able to send critics to jail because they got in its way."

A Shell spokesman said the company was certain the project had met all the stringent health and safety, planning and environmental requirements to build the pipeline to "world-class standards".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1530695,00.html 

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