What I learned in Mayo was that Shell, as well as its partner companies, Statoil and Marathon, have behaved in a way that is hard to believe is possible in a democratic country. And the Irish government is also implicated in this behavior because of their friendliness to multi nationals at the expense of the Irish people.Soon after the gas was discovered in the Corrib sub-sea field it was sold to Shell. Now the people of Ireland have no sovereignty over a natural resource belonging to them. It is a good thing that this gas will be brought in to Mayo, plugging them in to the National gas grid, and providing clean(er) fossil fuels to heat homes and the like. No one in the community would say that harvesting this gas is bad, however the fact that Ireland has no control over the resource means that this gas might as well be coming from Saudi Arabia or another oil rich country. The Irish people will still pay full international price for a resource that lies within their border, and rightfully is theirs. It is issues like this that have caused professor and former spokesperson for the Rossport 5, Mark Garavan, to describe Mayo as having the potential to become Ireland’s Chiapas..
The issue of safety is also brought up regarding the Corrib project. The proposed pipeline is a first of its kind project and runs straight through a residential area. It also will destroy aquatic as well as land based ecosystems in a specially protected area. The waste from this project, if completed, will be pumped into a bay that has circular tides, creating a poisonous environment for man and animal.
While staying at Killcommon Holiday Hostel, our host, Betty (described by community members as the mother of the community) introduced us to many members of the community who are fighting for their safety and the integrity of the place they call home. She set up meetings with many people involved with campaigns to keep the pipeline out of Erris, a special protected area under European law. One of these people was a member of the Rossport 5, Willie Corduff, and his wife, Mary. The Rossport 5 are men from the Parish of Rossport who were put in jail when Shell obtained a CAO (compulsory acquisition order) of their land. Up until this, no private company ever had the authority to take private property from citizens, and for good reason. If there was one thing I have learned from studying Irish politics and history it is that it is never a good idea to try and steal away land from poor, rural farmers in a place like Mayo, a former Land League stronghold, and one of the poorest counties in Ireland. This is especially a bad decision if the head of your European operation speaks with a British accent, Shell’s failure to recognize the collective memories they were stirring up of the land acquisitions of long ago by British imperialists proved damaging to the Corrib project. The Rossport 5, in typical Irish defiance did not allow Shell to use their land, and were imprisoned. The majority of Ireland rallied around the men and Shell eventually had the men let out of prison.
When you picture people like the Rossport 5, who stand up to corporations and fight against environmental degradation, an image of an eco-warrior/activist/dreadlocked angry young person may come into mind. I’m sure Shell would have been much more successful if this were true. However when Willie and Mary Corduff allowed us into their house for tea and a friendly chat, it was obvious these were everyday normal people. They were not political at all; in fact, this conflict is much more than politics for them. The thought of having a first of its kind, dangerous, high pressure (much more pressure that the pipeline that recently exploded in Connecticut), environmentally damaging pipeline, sitting, like a ticking time bomb in their backyard cuts much deeper than politics. The thought of the ecosystem that has supported them, their grandparents, and their great grandparents being decimated is something that crosses far into their personal feelings, far away from any left or right wing movement.
The Corduffs were an inspiring family. Willie showed us the farm animals and you could see a sense of pride when he showed us a newborn calf he had delivered a day before our visit.
Mary told us it was their 30th anniversary that day and I thought, what a shame, even on their anniversary they spend it fighting Shell and raising awareness to save their very way of life; because if Shell were to be successful, Willie says they would have to leave. I think the reason the Corduffs are inspiring is that they are just an everyday family. They didn’t ask for their role as leaders of a campaign against one of the most powerful forces in the world, the oil industry it was put on them, but they also did not crumble in the face of decaying democracy when a government thinks development automatically equals prosperity for all. It would have been easy for them to give up, take the small sum of money Shell offered and start over somewhere new, but it took great conviction to stand up and speak the truth. The Corduffs have always spoken the truth even in the face of Shell’s privatized security force, the Gardai, and men in balaclavas who almost killed Willie one night when he took a walk.The community’s goals are simple, safety, and the human right to control of a natural resource that they have a right to control. Shell also has a simple goal, profit. It is interesting then that during a tour of the gas processing plant, I saw a sign that read, “Safety is not expensive, it’s priceless”. It would truly be something if Shell followed that mantra and built the plant off shore, or in a non-populated area like Glinsk, so that the pipeline would not be going through a residential area with many fragile ecosystems; but after our meeting with Shell public relations representatives it was clear that those two options aren’t and were never really considered. My classmates and I asked them many questions, and remained admirably diplomatic and calm after a week of hearing the slow torture Shell has imposed on the local community.
When one of the reps went on and on about Shell’s safety record (which when looked at, is laughable) I asked if he was aware that their office in London which contained 2,500 employees, (some of which were Shell’s highest ranking European employees) had two separate fires last summer, and was hit with the biggest fire safety fine in England’s history (one count 45,000 pounds alone, 300,000 pounds combined). He of course was not aware of this, but was welcome to me giving him my research showing it. I think that if he has a pulse, and is employed by Shell, he should probably already be aware of this. Maybe he was aware of these fines, maybe he was doing his job as a PR man and deflecting a question. Or maybe as it turns out, people like the Corduffs aren’t the ignorant small minded rural people Shell makes them out to be. Maybe the real small minded people are people like this PR man who is a self proclaimed “Mayo Man” (even though he was born in London?) who has been duped into believing that Shell has anything on its mind other than coming through for the shareholders. The issues of Shell's saftey records make you wonder; if Shell will not keep its head of European operations safe, what corners will it cut in search of profit that could lead to the death of people like Willie and Mary Corduff?
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