Rossport Five back in jail after refusing to purge contempt

Evelyn Ring

The men returned to Cloverhill Prison, Dublin, yesterday after refusing to purge their contempt at a High Court hearing.

Shell is seeking to pump untreated gas from the Corrib gas field through a pipe to an onshore refinery at Bellanaboy, Co Mayo.

Another safety review ordered by Mr Dempsey was rejected by the men who are insisting that the gas be treated offshore.

“Pipelines rupture, no pipeline engineer intends this to happen but it does with sickening frequency. The outlandish pipeline proposed here to be forced in close proximity past our houses is the stuff of nightmares,” they said yesterday.

The five men, farmers Willie Corduff, Philip McGrath and Brendan Philbin and retired schoolteachers Vincent McGrath and Micheál Ó Sheighin, were imprisoned more than two weeks ago after refusing to give assurances they would not obstruct the construction of the pipeline.

Yesterday, the president of the High Court, Mr Justice Joseph Finnegan, refused to amend the order that restrains residents in Rossport, Co Mayo, from stopping Shell carrying out work on their lands.

And he dismissed an application for an order preventing Shell from continuing with work on the Corrib gas pipeline project.

Spokesperson for the men and their families, Maura Harrington, said the men went to jail because they felt there was no other course of action open to them. All other processes that they had entered into in good faith had been exhausted.

“The Government has now chosen to align itself more closely with multinationals than with their own citizens. That is the nub of the issue. That is why those five decent Irishmen are in jail,” she said.

Mr Justice Finnegan said he saw no point in the five men remaining in jail but said they would have to purge their contempt before they could be released.

A spokesperson for Mr Dempsey said the department still intended conducting a new safety review of the project and tenders for the review were being sought.

Shell said it was very disappointed that a means of releasing the men could not be found.

“In light of Minister Dempsey’s initiative and the company’s offer to suspend work while an additional safety review is underway, the company does not understand why this matter cannot now be resolved,” the company stated.

The men will appear before the High Court again on Monday, July 25.