The Rossport 5 - unbowed one year on

A year after spending 94 days in prison, Micheal O Seighin of the ‘Rossport 5’ vows that opposition to the proposed Shell pipeline in Mayo will continue. “We have no notion of lying down,” he insists. “We’re not going away. They can bring their hundreds of guards if they like. We can’t let it go through. They’ll have to put the whole community in jail.” 
Shell to Sea campaign spokesman Mark Garavan believes that further confrontation is inevitable if the project is forced through. “As of now, it looks like we’re heading for some kind of conflict, which is very unfortunate,” he warns. “We don’t want conflict, but we want the problem to be addressed. We want safety to be the priority.”
On the first anniversary of the men’s imprisonment, media interest has focused on the report into the controversy that was delivered by Peter Cassells a month ago. The former ICTU head was appointed by Environment Minister Noel Dempsey as a mediator. O’Seighin is contemptuous of the Cassells report. “It was rubbish, pure and simple,” the teacher says. “He was supposed to be a mediator, then he breached all the etiquette of mediation by publishing recommendations. He did a hatchet job on us. He sided with the man who paid his wages, Noel Dempsey.”
Cassells made a number of suggestions which were highlighted by the media. These included a proposal to modify the route of the pipeline. According to Mark Garavan, this amendment would be totally inadequate. “The Shell project would be essentially unchanged,” he maintains. “The basic architecture would still be in place. The core of what he was suggesting was a very minor modification.”
The Shell to Sea campaign has strongly objected to the plan for a gas refinery on land. As the proposed, untreated gas from the Corrib field will pass through the pipeline on its way to the refinery, within a short distance of people’s homes. Cassells did not support the campaign’s demand for an off-shore refinery. 
Michael O’Seighin is adamant that this makes no sense, and dismisses the proposal for a modified route. “Every engineer who has looked at this has said that the terminal is in the wrong place,” he argues. “Cassells came as near as he could to giving a carte blanche to Shell.”
According to the Cassells report, the majority of local people support the Corrib gas project. This conclusion was seized on by Noel Dempsey, who accused the Rossport 5 of being unrepresentative. “I believe they don’t reflect the overall views of the community generally,” Dempsey told the Irish Times after the report was published. “There are people in particular who claim to be speaking on behalf of all the community and it is quite clear that that is not true.”
Local politician Jerry Cowley is dismissive of this claim by Cassells. “I’m just wondering where he was and what he was doing when producing his report,” says the independent TD. “Having gone round doing a door-to-door canvass on behalf of the men, I found that support was rock solid.” 
Mark Garavan charges Cassells with “creative ambiguity”. The report states that the majority of people in Erris support the project. But according to Garavan, this ignores the fact that most objectors reject the methodology, not the project itself.
“The majority want the Corrib gas project to continue but don’t think the current plan is safe,” he insists. The Galway-based lecturer reckons that anyone who suggests the protesters are isolated doesn’t understand the nature of rural society.
“You’re talking about a close-knit community, where everyone is linked by family ties,” he argues. “It’s always a minority who are vocal, but they couldn’t function if they were isolated. The problem for Shell and the Government is that they face a united community, so they’re doing what they can to create the impression that this campaign is marginalised.” 
Claims that intimidation has silenced opponents of the campaign are groundless, says Garavan. “If you check with the local Gardai, there’s not a single example of intimidation logged,” he maintains. “Our campaign is based on non-violent resistance.” 
The Government has played a negative role in the dispute, Jerry Cowley believes. “They’ve bent over backwards to accommodate Shell,” says the TD. “Who exactly is this Government working for? It’s certainly not for the people.” He expects that they will continue to support Shell’s plan, with predictable consequences. “If Shell go ahead, these men are going to go to jail again,” Cowley warns. “They deserve more than to be subjected to the same experience. Nobody should ever have to go through what those men went through. Unless they bring in the army, it’s just not going to happen. The jails aren’t big enough to hold all the people who’ll stand in their way.”