Irish topic

[Tribesman]

Due to requests
The Rossport 5 ; 92 days in jail so far for contempt of court .
Their contempt , to refuse to allow contactors onto their land to construct an as yet unauthorised Gas pipeline .
http://www.shellfacts.com/News_Shell...05.html#photos
Unless they allow this illegal and dangerous development to take place they will remain in prison , seemingly for ever .

edit for another linkhttp://www.corribsos.com/index.php?id=1&type=page

[BDC]

Some judge is under the pay of Shell...

[Don Corleone]

I'm afraid I'm not familiar enough w/ your Constitution to understand just what rights they may or may not have under your defintion of eminent domain. That being said, I always default to being on the side of the property owners, so I shall indeed have to do some reading to see how your government is abusing these poor landowners.

[Tribesman]

so I shall indeed have to do some reading to see how your government is abusing these poor landowners.
Don , 4 of them are farmers , there is no such thing as a poor farmer , they are just very clever at hiding their money

[Duke Malcolm]

Oh yes, farmers are, especially with the cushtie EU money. A friend of my aunt's bought several cows just so that he could get money from the EU later for getting rid of the cows. Also, my auntie owns two goats for legal purposes, i.e. the handy hand-outs from the EU...

[Don Corleone]

so I shall indeed have to do some reading to see how your government is abusing these poor landowners.
Don , 4 of them are farmers , there is no such thing as a poor farmer , they are just very clever at hiding their money

I was trying to be glib and using a little propaganda. If they're having their property rights stripped by a renegade judge on the payroll of Shell, they're poor. And don't forget to post pictures of their poor children, waiting for Daddy to come home.

[Don Corleone]

Okay, you had me until I saw the guy in the Bush t-shirt. That was you, Tribesman, admit it! ~

Just kidding. Well protests are all well and good for making the news, but if you really want to put the screws to Shell:

1) organize a nationwide boycott. Ask other nations, including the USA, to quit buying their gas (consider me on board at this point)

2) send letters to the members of their board informing them of the boycott (once it's underway)

3) if you have any sort of impeachment/recall power over your MDs, start a recall petition against the MP for Mayo. Inform him/her as long as he continues to be Shell's patsy, he's not representing his people.

4) contact BP and Exxon/Mobile. You'd be surprised what one large corporation might be willing to do to stick it to one of their larger competitors.

Like I said, I don't understand your eminent domain laws, but it sounds like this Judge Finneran is way out on a limb. Perhaps time to take a lawyer on and ask for the local judicial oversight board to take a look?

[Tribesman]

Okay, you had me until I saw the guy in the Bush t-shirt. That was you, Tribesman, admit it! ~
A T-shirt in the West of Ireland , you must be mad , what about the weather .
Though I might be in the photos of one of the Galway marches , I havn't looked .

1) organize a nationwide boycott. Ask other nations, including the USA, to quit buying their gas (consider me on board at this point)
Hey we invented the word
The boycotts on at most petrol stations , though you know what people are like , the company drops the price a few cents/litre and people go and buy it .

2) send letters to the members of their board informing them of the boycott (once it's underway)
Done it , though I didn't go to the bother of attending their annual board and shareholders meetings

3) if you have any sort of impeachment/recall power over your MDs, start a recall petition against the MP for Mayo. Inform him/her as long as he continues to be Shell's patsy, he's not representing his people.
I think thats Cooper/Flynn , so corrupt and seemingly immune over even openly criminal actions she cares just about as much as her father did

4) contact BP and Exxon/Mobile. You'd be surprised what one large corporation might be willing to do to stick it to one of their larger competitors.
Why would they be interested , it is only offering a 100% profit over 30 years , and that is only if they use third world dangerous methods , if they do it safely there is little financial incentive .

Oh yes, farmers are, especially with the cushtie EU money. A friend of my aunt's bought several cows just so that he could get money from the EU later for getting rid of the cows. Also, my auntie owns two goats for legal purposes, i.e. the handy hand-outs from the EU...
Malcolm ; the Foot and Mouth was the downfall of many of these farmers .
It is very hard to bring your friends flock of sheep onto your land so you are entitled to payments when your friend is not allowed to move his sheep .
It exposed many many farmers who had been getting headage payments , yet had never owned a single sheep , let alone the hundreds that they were claiming for

[lugh]

Ok, here's the thing. They were in contempt of court for refusing to undertake not to interfere with a governmentally approved project. And they were jailed for it, because they broke the law, it's that simple. They are in jail for breaking the law, not for protesting.

Now that said, I don't agree with the terms of contact agreed with Shell, they're a relic of previous decades when governments were bending over backwards to get any kind of inward investment just to get people off the dole queue. Nowadays, especially in the oil market, with demand being so high, it's the governements who have the companies over the barrel but some little bureacrat in Dublin decided it was too much to draw up a new contract and just handed out a near carbon copy of one from the 70-80s.
However, it's good to hear that the Danish government (a new left wing alliance I beleive) is taking an interest in the issue and a representative from the Irish labour party has received promises that it will be raised in the parliament by the Danish Labour party.

[Grey_Fox]

They broke the law and the Courts did what Bunracht na hEireann demands of people that show contempt for it. It is not Shell that threw into the jail, it was themselves. They knowingly and willingly broke the law, and quite frankly they deserve it.

And the Sinn Féin have jumped on this bandwagon now. Kind of suitable, terrorists standing up for the rights of criminals.