Rossport Five supporters picket Statoil stations

SUPPORTERS of the five Mayo men jailed for opposing a gas pipeline near their homes picketed some Statoil service stations in the Dublin area yesterday.

Micheál Ó Seighín, Vincent McGrath, his brother Philip, Willie Corduff and Brendan Philbin, from Rossport in Co Mayo, have been held in Dublin’s Cloverhill prison for the past three weeks for refusing to obey a High Court injunction taken out by Shell.

The men had been ordered to stop obstructing a gas pipeline being built across their land in Rossport.

Statoil - 70% owned by the Norwegian State and operating over 200 service stations in this country - is a 35% stakeholder in the Corrib gas field.

Protestors have asked the Norwegian authorities to ensure offshore refining of the Mayo gas - as is the practice in Norway.

Members of the Shell to Sea campaign group say refining of the gas offshore in shallow water would solve the ongoing impasse with regard to the proposed “unsafe, unsound onshore gas pipeline and the hazardous onshore refinery.”

Families of the jailed men will lead a protest march through Dublin from the Garden of Remembrance this afternoon at 2pm. Organisers have called for a big turnout.

Thousands of people have taken to the streets throughout Co Mayo to demonstrate solidarity with the jailed men.

Supporters claim the scale of these demonstrations indicates that a major movement has emerged to oppose Shell’s plans for the Mayo area.

Protests have taken place in Mayo, Dublin, Kerry, Cork, Waterford, Galway, Leitrim, Waterford, Laois, Kilkenny, Kildare and Westmeath.