Jailed protesters ‘determined to keep up fight’

THE five men jailed over protests against the Shell gas drilling operation in Mayo remain determined to continue their protest, said a TD who visited them in jail yesterday.

Jerry Cowley was one of five TDs who visited the men in Clover Hill prison, where they have been held since Wednesday. The independent deputy from Mayo said the men were "absolutely determined" to stick with the protest, and were not willing to purge their contempt.

The five men from Rossport in North Mayo were all jailed on Wednesday when they refused to give undertakings not to obstruct preparatory work for future pipe-laying being done by the oil multi-national. The proposed high-pressure pipes, bearing gas, will link the gas fields with a processing terminal at Bellanaboy, five kilometres inland.