AINE RYAN: Tuesday, July 31, 2012
A large tunnel boring machine brought in by Shell to dig a 4.9km tunnel under Sruwaddacon Bay inland to the Bellanaboy gas processing terminal is stuck at a crossroads in Co Mayo as it is too large to navigate the narrow roads.
Thee specialist tunnelling equipment was on its way from Dublin to the Sruwaddacon Estuary in north Mayo. It couldn’t access the site at Aughoose because of its size and got stuck at the crossroads when it attempted an alternative route.
Earlier, there was a tense stand-off between protesters and gardaí as the machine made its way past Ballina and scuffles broke out with the huge garda convey escorting it.
Two protesters initially blocked the road on the outskirts of Ballina during a “lock-on”, when they chained themselves to a drum filled with cement.
Gardaí with specialist cutting equipment cleared the scene, before Shell To Sea campaigner Maura Harrington and another 30 supporters against the controversial Corrib gas project blocked the road closer to Bellacorick bridge near Erris with a van.
“It was very violent and tense for about 30 minutes,” said one onlooker.“The protesters tried to climb on top of the van.There were scuffles with guards and people’s clothes were torn. One woman had her trousers torn off. Then about 50 gardai held the crowd back until the convoy passed.”
A garda spokesman said no arrests had been made.
The machine was held up again when more campaigners staged another lock-on about 10km from its final destination.
The equipment, still being transported from Dublin Port on three 40m trucks, is being escorted by four garda vans carrying members of the Public Order Unit, other police vehicles and mini-buses of private security.
Protesters gathered at the port and followed the slow-moving convoy over the last two nights.
Con Coughlan, of the Rossport Solidarity Camp, said the machinery was going to destroy a beautiful estuary and a special area of conservation.
He claimed protesters were “detained illegally” and held in a car park instead of being arrested by gardaí.
“It was important we show there is still opposition against this given the amount of resources the State is willing to put behind it,” he said.
“There are loads of guards here and we were still able to delay it.
“We are putting those resources behind the richest company in the world when we have no money for the elderly people on hospital trolleys.
“There is something wrong in that world.”
Additional reporting: PA
MORE PHOTOS FROM THE CORRIB FRONT LINE
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
