Corrib clashes

NO ENTRY Security men stand guard around Shell’s work site in Glengad last week. Twelve people were arrested there on Tuesday last.

Corrib clashes on Glengad beach

Áine Ryan

THE focus of the controversial Corrib gas controversy returned to Glengad beach – the landfall site of the offshore pipeline – after 12 people were arrested on Tuesday afternoon last, July 22.
Held for a number of hours at Belmullet Garda Station, the eleven men, including Rossport Five’s Willie Corduff, and one woman, were arrested for public order offences. They were released without charge later that evening and gardaí confirmed a file was being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
Notwithstanding this, by Thursday a group of protestors returned to the beach to protest at the ongoing works, which included the erection of barriers.
Claims by Shell that they had all the necessary consents to carry out the preparatory works were confirmed in an Irish Times article, also on Thursday last, when Minister Eamon Ryan acknowledged there had been an ‘oversight’ in failing to publish the latest authorisations for work on the Corrib gas project.
A spokeswoman for Minister Ryan told The Irish Times that henceforth ‘all authorisations and new information relating to the department’s role [in the project] would be published on the website’ from that date.
In light of the confusion, Dr Mark Garavan observed: “All information should be made clear, and the fact that this work on Glengad relates to consents originally approved before the 2003 Pollathomas landslide also needs to be questioned.”
Dr Garavan criticised Minister Ryan’s handling of the Corrib gas issue and said he should start acting like a minister on the Corrib gas issue, and ‘stop hiding behind artificial legal constraints and demonstrate conviction and responsibility on this crucial issue’. He said the Minister had not responded to the alternative land-based site for the gas terminal, which was suggested by members of the local Catholic Clergy, nor had he responded to the Green Party’s National Executive motion calling for an independent study into the best location for the gas refinery.
“For too long the Corrib dispute has dragged on, primarily because of a failure of political leadership and courage. Minister Ryan has now joined the long list of politicians who have failed to understand that their first duty is to serve Irish citizens. He and the Greens should remember what they once stood for,” he said.
Meanwhile, the recently formed Pobal Chill Chomáin – the local community group which supports an onshore site at Glinsk –  has called on the two Green Party Government Ministers to cease all civil engineering works by Shell in both Pollathomas and Glengad area until it conducts a ‘rigorous geological survey and examination’.