Dublin Shell to Sea

When news of the Corrib gas field first emerged, many Erris residents who are today critical of the project were excited by the prospect of local jobs. However, concerns about the location of the refinery and the safety of the raw gas pipeline soon emerged.¹

Residents learned that the pipeline was unique for a populated area: as a new cost-saving measure, the gas would not be processed on a platform at sea, as is standard practice in other countries. Instead, the oil consortium would lay a high-pressure pipeline to carry raw, odourless gas, containing an unpredictable mix of corrosive chemicals, through the village of Rossport to a refinery built on a shifting bog. Many residents’ first experience of the oil consortium was one of threats, bullying and intimidation. Many felt pressured to sign permissions to allow their land to be used.²

An Bord Pleanála (ABP) upheld the appeal by local residents against planning permission for the inland refinery in 2002. ABP’s senior planning inspector, Kevin Moore, described the proposed location as “the wrong site” on four separate counts. But in September 2003, then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and other ministers met with Shell executives and senior civil servants. A week later, the company met with ABP’s chairman. Two months later, Shell reapplied for permission for the same site. This time round, permission was granted³.

A belief grew that the planning process was subject to political interference, and that the result was a foregone conclusion. The Shell to Sea group came together to campaign for the gas to be refined, depressurised and odorised offshore. Their concerns increased as further research revealed that the licensing and fiscal terms under which the gas had been offered to the oil and gas corporations were among the least favourable in the world for the state, and that the public would receive little benefit from the risk that Erris residents would be subjected to.

When local farmers and schoolteachers disobeyed a court injunction in 2005, which would have compelled them to allow Shell to access their property for pipeline works, Shell requested the committal of five of them to prison, which was granted by the High Court. They became known as the Rossport Five, and the Shell to Sea campaign was propelled to the national and international stage.

The Shell to Sea campaign is now a national campaign, with branches not only in Mayo, but also in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Kildare, Kinsale, Waterford, and Belfast. All of these branches work together to achieve the aims of having the gas processed at sea according to international best practice, and to have the Corrib Gas deal renegotiated.

“We gave the Corrib gas away and now Eamon Ryan is intent on giving away the remaining choice areas of our offshore acreage at less than bargain basement prices”
Economist Colm Rapple, 2007

 From the Dublin Shell to Sea information pack - Download a PDF file (46mb) of the information pack.

1 Centre for Public Inquiry, The Great Corrib Gas Controversy, 2005, p. 25
2 Mark Garavan, Willie and Mary Corduff, Micheál and Caitlín Ó Seighin, Philip and Maureen McGrath, Brendan Philbin, Vincent and Maureen McGrath, Our Story – The Rossport Five, 2007, p. 23
3 Centre for Public Inquiry, The Great Corrib Gas Controversy, 2005, p. 15