Rossport Five returned to jail
Five protesters against gas pipelines being built by Shell in the west of Ireland were returned to jail today after an attempted peace deal failed.
The men had been in Cloverhill Prison in Dublin for 27 days after they refused to obey an injunction forbidding them from obstructing the construction of the pipeline across their land in Rossport, Co Mayo.
At the High Court in Dublin, lawyers for the men applied to have the injunction discharged on the grounds that they could not intefere because Shell had agreed to cease work on the pipeline.
But the President of the High Court, Joseph Finnegan, said he would not hear any application from the men until they purged their contempt.
“It is not acceptable to me that persons in contempt should seek the assistance of the court,” he said.
The courtroom was packed with supporters of the men, who have become known as the Rossport Five.
And there were high hopes that the men would be released after Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources Noel Dempsey said last weekend that Shell had not complied with the ministerial consent he had granted for the pipeline.
Shell E&P Ireland is planning to build a 5.6-mile (9km) pipeline across land in Mayo to take unprocessed gas from the Corrib gas field to an onshore refinery.
Senior counsel Patrick Hanratty, representing the company, said it had written to the five men – Micheál O’Seighin, Willie Corduff, James Philbin, and brothers Vincent and Philip McGrath – to assure them all construction on the pipeline would be halted in view of Mr Dempsey’s decision to order a safety review of the project.
Reading from the letter, he said: “In these circumstances there appears to be no good reason for your clients to remain in prison.”
But international criminal lawyer John Joe Reilly, representing two more residents of Rossport, said the injunction had been granted to Shell on a false premise.
But Judge Finnegan said he was quite satisfied he had not been misled by Shell.
Senior counsel John Rogers, representing the five men, said the lack of an explanation from Shell about work being carried out in the absence of ministerial consent left them in some difficulty.
Judge Finnegan said he would get an explanation from Shell in due course but not at the behest of persons in contempt.
“If they want to make any application, they will do it when they purge their contempt,” he said.
The five men were led out of the court and into a white prison van while their supporters cheered and clapped.
Within minutes of their court appearance, the men released a statement in which they said they were fighting for the freedom required by all citizens: to protect their families and neighbours.
“We’re in prison because we intend to protect our lives and our families and our neighbours from potential disaster. We cannot agree to a proposal which proposes to ban us from continuing to protect our lives by opposing the Shell pipeline,” the statement said.
The men want the company to build the gas refinery offshore to remove the need for a pipeline carrying unprocessed gas less than 70 metres from some of their homes.
No date has yet been set for the full High Court hearing of the men’s case against the Shell pipeline but it is not expected to proceed until the safety review is complete.
