Excerpt:
"Community spirit here was torn apart by Shell," Mrs Corduff said. "But the imprisonment of villagers has galvanised everybody back together again. Shell doesn't understand community or neighbourly life. They thought jailing people would weaken us, it has strengthened us." Werner Blau, a physics professor at Trinity College, Dublin, and part-time Rossport resident, told protesters the pipeline would not comply with US standards which were "pretty lax". In August 2000, a gas pipeline exploded in New Mexico and killed 12 people. Last year an explosion in a natural gas pipeline in Belgium killed 15 and injured 120. One of the imprisoned men, Micheál Ó Seighin, 65, told the Guardian before he was jailed that villagers felt "like Chicken Licken: we are waiting for the sky to fall down on our heads". Jerry Cowley, the independent MP for Mayo, said: "The small man is being trampled into the ground." Michael Ring of Fine Gael said Ireland was now living in a "dictatorship within a democracy". Some local workers on the project have downed tools in protest. One security guard who resigned his post with Shell said: "I didn't agree with the company being able to send critics to jail because they got in its way." A Shell spokesman said the company was certain the project had met all the stringent health and safety, planning and environmental requirements to build the pipeline to "world-class standards".
Werner Blau, a physics professor at Trinity College, Dublin, and part-time Rossport resident, told protesters the pipeline would not comply with US standards which were "pretty lax".
In August 2000, a gas pipeline exploded in New Mexico and killed 12 people. Last year an explosion in a natural gas pipeline in Belgium killed 15 and injured 120.
One of the imprisoned men, Micheál Ó Seighin, 65, told the Guardian before he was jailed that villagers felt "like Chicken Licken: we are waiting for the sky to fall down on our heads".
Jerry Cowley, the independent MP for Mayo, said: "The small man is being trampled into the ground."
Michael Ring of Fine Gael said Ireland was now living in a "dictatorship within a democracy".
Some local workers on the project have downed tools in protest. One security guard who resigned his post with Shell said: "I didn't agree with the company being able to send critics to jail because they got in its way."
A Shell spokesman said the company was certain the project had met all the stringent health and safety, planning and environmental requirements to build the pipeline to "world-class standards".
