VIP's from Pallaskenry & Bantry visit Rossport Solidarity Camp.
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rights, freedoms and repression |
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Tuesday August 15, 2006 21:07
by Niall Harnett - Gluaiseacht.
Willie Corduff, Orla Kaiser, Mary Corduff & Stefan Kaiser
El pueblo unido jamas sera vencido. Be fully assured of the righteousness of the struggle.
Above are two quotes from a book in the Rossport Solidarity Camp library called 'Clandestines -The Pirate Journals of an Irish Exile' by Ramor Ryan. Ramor describes a memorial concert for a female student leader shot down during the Venezuelan revolution in the early nineties ... and the chant:
'El pueblo unido jamas sera vencido - A united people can never be conquered.'
Community activists Orla Kaiser from Pallaskenry and Joe Burke & Der Holland from Bantry, who all face threat of jail for ignoring high court injunctions instructing them not to protect the health and safety of their families and communities, visited the solidarity camp in Rossport, met with some of the 'Five' and the local Shell to Sea campaigners and received unequivocal support, to be ‘assured of the righteousness of their struggles’ .
"The level of defiance and optimism is palpable" - says Shane who donated his friend Ramor's book to the camp library. On Saturday night at the camp it was Joe Burke who was telling us not to give up the fight. On Monday evening Orla & Stefan Kaiser left Mayo with the words of Willie Corduff ringing in her ears. "Don't give up, never give up."
Some recent Shell To Sea activity:
The Long Walk from Rossport to Dublin: The walk begins | Almost there | The final leg plus: Shell to Sea activist cuts 6 years of dreads
Over the recent August bank-holiday weekend at a planning & building gathering at Rossport Solidarity Camp, we enjoyed the company of Orla Kaiser from the Bleach Lough Spring Water Retention Group in Pallaskenry, Co Limerick and Joe Burke & Der Holland from the Bantry Concerned Action Group, Bantry, Co. Cork. Joe’s was a planned visit alright and we had arranged for him to give a talk on Saturday night at the camp. Orla's was more of a spontaneous visit and a lovely surprise it was to see her arrive at the camp with her family.
Joe Burke spent most of his time out and about with Micheál Ó Seighin, touring the area and visiting with some of the ‘Five’, which explains the relatively low number of photos, in this report, of Joe’s adventures in Erris. Der Holland, who recently ignored threats of arrest for blocking the ESB in Bantry, and is still a free man!, stayed at the camp and took a tour of the area with me, hence a few more photos. Likewise with Orla and her family who took great encouragement from meeting and talking with some of the ‘Five’ and other local campaigners.
The Bantry Concerned Action Group are strong. “Me and the landowners in Rossport, we’re the same and we’re not going to give in”, says Joe.
Orla Kaiser is strong too, and the braver for facing a somewhat lonelier battle. She, remember, is the only one to face a committal order to jail on the back of her refusal to obey a high court injunction instructing her to allow Limerick County Council connect her community to a polluted water source, the River Deel. Some in her group are pressuring her to obey the injunction for fear the rest of them will be forced to face costs being threatened against them by Limerick County Council.
Sorry lads and lassies but if you let those threats from L.C.C. worry and dissuade you, you will lose your spring water, nothing surer. Is it Spring Water Retention or River Deel Connection you want? Make your choice now. For Orla’s sake and the sake of your community, stand back on the line … or stand back altogether. There’s too much at stake to be sitting on the fence.
The message of encouragement to Orla from Rossport was simple. And the same to anyone unsure in Bantry or Pallaskenry. To win you must stand up to all the bullying and the threats. Have no fear and fight them all the way. The seeking of costs??? … as Vincent McGrath says - “Just let them try!”.
The Rossport lads have millions against them. They’re not worried and neither should you be. Fight on.
Joe Burke & Der Holland from Bantry at the camp.
Der Holland surveys the proposed pipeline route.
Orla Kaiser with brothers Vincent & Philip McGrath of the Rossport Five in front of Brendan Philbin's barn.
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Comments (18 of 18)
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Tracey having the craic with Joe and Der before introducing …
… Joe’s talk at the camp.
Broadhaven Bay …
… and Ray Corduff welcome Orla and her family to beautiful N.W. Mayo.
At the Shell compound Rossport with Vincent and Philip.
.
Inspecting the pipes rusting away in Rossport.
Lunch and encouragement at Vincent’s.
At the Shell to Sea HQ trailer at Bellanaboy, they were really excited to see Orlaith,
Willie Corduff says it clear, as always. Never give in!
The Righteousness of Struggle.
Shameless plug for Ramor's book, mentioned above. available from AK Press. Review on the front page of their website.
The opening lines of the leading article on this subject includes the comment that the Rossport Five went to jail for, to quote directly: "ignoring high court injunctions instructing them not to protect the health and safety of their families and communities".
Let us be totally accurate and honest about this. The men were jailed for failing to agree to abide by the conditions laid down via an injunction imposed legally and without bias in a court of law. Failing to observe the decision of a court in this case is the same as failing to observe the order of a court in many other comparable situations. Let's say a publcan refuses to cease distributing inflamatory anti-traveller literature outside his pub that claims travellers are violent drinkers and won't be served in his establishment. Or a fairly nasty individual refuses to observe an injunction against visiting his wife's home after she's taken a restraining order against him. Is anyone suggesting that the courts should not have punative powers when someone decides that they will ignore an order of the court?
Leaving aside the matter of whether the men were correct in their overall campaign against the Shell project or not - this I am not debating - the men have an entitlement as individual citizens to refuse openly to observe a decision of the court but the court is, as a result, entitled to send them to jail until they purge their contempt. The men refused to obey the court and they were sent off to jail - it doesn't sound as romantic as some of the misleading courtroom accounts written on Indymedia by one or two supporters of theirs but that is what happened.
the end.
Please study legislation (*Dating at least 2002-2206).
From this you can derive:
1. A lot of the legislation introduced by a right -wing government with an over-all
majority has been anti-citizen.
2. This would include : The Sex Laws , which criminalise young people for having consensual sex
(introduced by Michael Mc Dowell TD)
a) It puts child/teenage rape victims on the stand to discuss and be cross -examined
by the defendants counsel.
b) It can lead to the incarceration of 16 year old boys for having sex.
TDR:
A directive given by Mary O Rourke to retain all data from e-mail, mobile phone
and fax was retained illegally by Minister Mc Dowell, until the data commissioner
forced legislation.
Planning:
The S.I.B. was concocted out of the remant of the N.I.B (national Infrastructure board)
to fast-track aggressive corporate-led planning in this country. The S.I/.B is
a division of An Bord Pleanala which provides a one-stop shop for an entity
to transcend the normality of the Planning process: it includes gas pipe-lines, toll-roads
and in the next ten years nuclear energy in Ireland.
The idea of N.I.B was dropped and martin Cullen who propunded it, against lobbying
by Minister Mc Dowell who was opposed to the inclusion of the Poolbeg incinerator
in the Board. (it affects his vote majority to have an incinerator in his constituency=nimbyism)
The SIB also reduces the citizen's rights to access the judicial process and envisages
a re-structuring of the courts to fast-track the diluted judicial process for
'established' environmental groups.
As to injunctions: they are gotten by the county council, the crony lobby and the multi
involved in the planning- which does not at any stage involve the community- except
through the 'consultative' proccess- which is a masquerade for consultation, given that
the plans for whatever piece of crap a multi wants to inflict on a community will not be diverged
from lest good capitalist money is wasted.
Legalitarian :- It called corruption. it's endemic in the state and it needs rooting out.
Well done to the community groups who are exposing through self-sacrifice the
corruption of the planners and cronies in this state.
btw: the judge interprets the law, but the politicians make it. they receive their mandate from us
so ultimately we are responsible for locking up the Rossport five.
The quote you refer to in the article above actually does not refer to the Rossport 5:
"Community activists Orla Kaiser from Pallaskenry and Joe Burke & Der Holland from Bantry, who all face threat of jail for ignoring high court injunctions instructing them not to protect the health and safety of their families and communities..."
But I would suggest it also applies to the Rossport 5.
"The men were jailed for failing to agree to abide by the conditions laid down via an injunction imposed legally and without bias in a court of law."
Legally and without bias? according to whose criteria ?
"Legally", because the law makers have decided to call this 'legal' .
And "without bias", because we are supposed to take their word for it that they have weighed up fairly the 5 men's concerns about their safety and wellbeing, and that of their families, and 'balanced' it against a multinational consortium's right to exploit our natural resources at the least cost to them.
It's a bit like that other one that blind legal fetishists always like to bang on about. The magical Rule of Law. The Rule of Law is the Rule of Law because it is the Rule of Law. Perfect mediaeval logic.
The earth is flat because the vatican decreed it to be so, so how could it be any other way?
How dare heretics like Niall Harnett tell readers what the injunction actually means for the families !
Good article, these people are an inspiration to social justice activists. No matter the bull crap left right divide people are united against one thing “the freedom to live in a just world”.
There is a clear line between right and wrong it may be fogged by propaganda and our bitter experiences, but the good fight can not be lost because their shall always be people spitting in the face of masked injustice.
Hi,
This kind of exploiting company are the inheritance of the english colonialism which in the last 400 years has killed many millions of people by setting up regional bureaucracies managing local governments and armies in order to control all the resources of the world.
Nevertheless, the time has come!
Besides, the history is giving us another opportunity to strike the empire there where it is most sensitive and aggressive.
Will we be united this time?
We want the world back!
Legatarian your simplistic views on the law in this country are rather niave to say the least . Anyone who wintessed judge Finnegan's behaviour during the many court hearings would have been apalled by his craven efforts to intimidate and delibratly put the 5 men and there families threw as much discomfort and stress as possible on behalf of Shell. These tactics included delibratly cancelling sittings of the court at the last minute knowing that the Rossport 5, families and supporters would incurr much expense and time travelling to Dublin. He also went out of his way to impose Shell's cost on them despite the fact that both parties had agreed top cover their own bills. Typicall behaviour of a Mcdowell appointee(puppet!!!) - So much for an independent judiciary!!!
Just a comment if i might;re the judge and the way he treated the rosport people.First of all you should ask who appoints the judges,that should explain a lot.The state (ff govt)appoint the judges so when a particular case is for hearing the judge gets a phone call and he is told what to do.It IS as simple as that.
Most people are not out fighting for their rights,they are out there fighting to hold on to the rights that we have.Sadly we are being ruled by dictators.A perfect example of this is when we had the Niece referendum.If im wrong then why dont we get sundays match played again?Or run the Derby again?
Hey there all you fellow citizens with the freedom to say and do what ever is right to protect yourselves and your families. Here is just another example of how our government is screwing us over by feeding us crap all year round and pulling the strings of our local representatives. I am sorry to say but I have never heard of a public representative acting on behalf of ordinary people without wanting something back. I think it's about time that more real people take up the reigns and take on the powers that be for what is right. If these judges do not seem to do there duty properly then come out and name more of them and shame them until they get there act together. I believe that people have the power to make a difference in this country of ours and we need not forget that. So lets stand up to the Shells of this country,the esb's of this country,the local councils of this country and any other body who thinks about trying to bully or push people off their land or force pipes that they do not want on their land or change ther water supply from spring water to POLLUTED WATER .
PEOPLE OF IRELAND STAND UP AND FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHTS.
agree with other comments.the only time i see judges doing the right thing is coming out with statements AFTER they retire!! does this not say it all.They are pitchforked into a job by the state,paid by the state and then they do exactly what the state tell them.The very same applies to politicans the whole way down to local council level.The county managers are paid by the state too,and they have the final say in everything in a county when it comes to making a decision.Your local county councilors ,who have very little say,but plenty TO say,dont want to rock the boat.Under section29 ( im 99%certain its section 29) if county councilors want to overturn a county managers decision they can do so if 75% of them agree to do so.But do they ever do this? not flaming lightly,that would annoy the county manager.There you have it.Put one sheep outa gap.......
I believe yes the county manager has the final say 'in the council chambers' but ordinary people have power out side. Just look at what those people from Pallaskenry did in Limerick out side the council offices a couple of weeks ago. They were not getting anywhere it seems with there local councilors, so they protested out side the council office in Dooradoyle to try put pressure on the Manager to talk to them. Something must have worked because soon afterwards the council wanted to 'TALK' to the campaigners. Todate there still seems to be no reasonable outcome, but we believe that the council will see sense in the end and let the people of Pallaskenry and Kildimo keep their spring water.
In some other comments people have said that people just Protest just for the sake of it, but I believe that these people are doing this because they believe in what they are standing up for. If more people stood up this Freestate of ours SHE could be free again.
Good luck to all those in there struggles with the so called powers that be.
"The state (ff govt)appoint the judges"
This is incorrect. The judge you refer to , was appointed by the president.
I read through the comments;there is a lot of stuff in there.However i am of the opinion that whoever said "the state appoints the judges"... IS actually correct.The last comment says the President appoints them.No ;the State appoints the judges and then they go to the President to get "sworn it" etc. You are both fairly right so let us put that to bed.
Just when we thought we had heard the end of the threats from L.C.C. it appears that they are not finished with us. Well maybe they underestimate the power of the people in their area.
I would like to put a scenario to any legal minds out there.
Lets just say that I entered a contract with 'John' to do some work for me, but 'Mary' did not want the work to go ahead because it would take away something that 'Mary' has had for over forty years. Then I try to stop 'Mary' by taking out a High Court Injunction against her. In her dispute with me, 'Mary' finds out that 'John' has not registered with the Pensions and Sick Pay Scheme for his workers and is doing work Illegally. Would I have the legal right to take 'Mary' to court to prevent her from stopping 'John' doing his work and to recoupe the costs that have built up.
I suppose the real question is 'do I have a legal right to take 'Mary' through tje courts, even though the contract I have with 'John' is Illegal.
If any body could respond to my quiery it would be most helpful.
But we must not lose sight of the fact that the situation is not as straightforward as a legal dispute between persons who are, nominally at least, equal before the law. Shell E and P Ireland was given the right, for the first time in Irish history, to have Compulsory Access Orders and Compulsory Acquisition Orders enforced by Irish courts. Formerly, these were State powers, and were only enforceable on behalf of the State. But with this little stroke, a multinational has been granted State powers. I don't think I need to spell out the implications of this, except to say that it does not bode well for democracy.
I would be interested to know if anyone can find any precedent for an Irish citizen being sued by a multinational in an Irish court, per se, leaving aside the question of "devolved" State functions. I can't think of one.