Major demonstration for Rossport Five in Dublin.

Major demonstration for Rossport Five in Dublin.

Families of the Rossport Five who have been jailed because of their refusal to allow Shell build a pipeline through their land are holding a major demonstration in Dublin next Saturday (23^rd July).

The demonstration will assemble at 2pm Garden of Remembrance.

In a statement, the Shell to Sea Campaign said,

‘Major demonstrations have occurred throughout Mayo to support the Rossport Five. 1,500 marched in Castlebar; three thousand in Belmullet and, last Saturday, 1,500 marched in Ballina. The scale of these demonstrations indicate that a major movement has emerged to oppose Shell’s plans for the area.

‘We will now be taking the spirit of these protests to Dublin and are calling on everyone who supports the rights of Irish citizens against the power of giant corporations to come out and join us.

‘A huge injustice is being committed against the Rossport Five. They are being jailed indefinitely at the behest of Shell until they ‘purge their contempt’. In practice, this means giving up on their opposition to building a dangerous pipeline though their land.

But a huge injustice is also being committed against the Irish people as a whole. The spotlight is now being shed on an arrangement made in 1992 whereby the oil and gas companies pay no royalties to the Irish state and enjoy the lowest rate of tax in the world. Concessions to these companies were made in the 1992 Finance Act introduced by Bertie Ahern.

The Shell to Sea campaign is appalled that new frontier licences are about to be issued in the Slyne/ Erris and Donegal area under the same discredited legislation.

It appears that an environmental injustice is being added to an economic injury.

issued by: Shell to Sea Campaign Mayo