1,000 protest farmers' jailing

AROUND 1,000 people joined a protest in Castlebar in Co Mayo yesterday over the jailing of five farmers who stopped the Shell Corrib gas pipeline from going through their land.

The protest is the latest in a series over the laying of a nine kilometre high-pressure pipeline from under the Atlantic off the Mayo coast to a inshore refinery at Ballanaboy.

The afternoon rally was organised by independent Mayo TD Dr Jerry Cowley who said public support for the men's cause was also building right across the country. He had visited the men over the weekend and they were bearing up well considering the circumstances.

The men, James P Philbin, Philip McGrath, Willie Corduff, Vincent McGrath and Micheál Ó Suighin, are in Cloverhill Prison in Dublin.

A statement read out on the men's behalf called for the resignation of the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural resources, Noel Dempsey, who had all presided over what they termed as "this scandalous affair".

The men are also insisting that all development work should stop until there is a full court hearing and for the deal struck between Shell and the State to be renegotiated.

They pointed out that they had been criminalised as result of being taken to court by Shell last week.

The Department of Communications, Marine and Natural resources has confirmed that while it has issued consents to Shell for preparatory work on the pipeline, no consent had been given for installing and commissioning the structure.

Shell, however, said it had never claimed to have overall consent for the project at this stage. The process involved a series of "phased consents" with approval for laying the pipeline due shortly.

Sinn Féin president, Gerry Adams, who visited the men on Saturday described the men's jailing as a disgrace and called for their immediate release.