Policing costs mount as the Corrib clash moves closer to sea

The cost of the State's security operation around Shell's project in Mayo has exceeded €10 million, and shows no sign of abating as protests continue, writes Conor Lally, Crime Correspondent.

AS A COLD September breeze whips across the fields that sweep down to the sea, a group of people huddle around a turf fire boiling a kettle. The waves of the Atlantic break on the rocks in Broadhaven Bay and onto the sands of Glengad beach. In the fight against Shell's controversial Corrib gas pipeline, this place in rural west Co Mayo is the front line.

The people by the fireside have come from various parts of Ireland and the UK to join local people in opposing Shell. They have erected two large communal tents in the middle of a field on the cliff top. About half a mile up the road, at Glengad beach, you can find the focus of their protest.

It is here that Shell's gas pipeline will reach the shore, carrying gas from the Corrib gas fields in the Atlantic. From Glengad the pipeline will run underground for another 10km to Shell's processing plant at Bellanaboy.

In 2006 a massive Garda operation was put in place to clear protests of up to 250 people from around the then blockaded Bellanaboy site. Gardaí and protesters clashed in what became very physical confrontations. In the end the protest was broken.

The Bellanaboy plant, which will cost up to €1 billion, is now well under construction. When The Irish Times visited it this week, an unoccupied van and trailer parked outside were all that were left of the demonstration. The van's windows have been plastered with anti-Shell slogans. "Have you sold your soul to Shell?" reads one. "More lies," reads another.

But the protest at the much smaller Glengad site continues. The cost of the State's security operation around Shell's project in Mayo has exceeded €10 million since 2003. And it is mounting.

The Naval Service has had three vessels in the area at different times in recent weeks. They have been dispatched to help the Garda secure the waters off Glengad to enable the massive Solitaire ship to begin laying the gas pipe in the waters. The ship became damaged by adverse weather before work began and it was forced to leave the area.

The Garda Water Unit is now permanently patrolling the waters of Broadhaven Bay. About 30 local uniformed gardaí are stationed at the Glengad protest site or patrol in Garda vehicles between Glengad and Bellanaboy. But at times more than 200 personnel are drafted in from other divisions. These work long overtime hours and stay in local hotel and BB accommodation paid for out of the Garda budget.

Garda sources say the protest has been infiltrated at times by very hard-line republican elements, though they concede the various protest groups cannot stop people coming into the area.

The same sources said at least two leading members of the Real IRA in Derry have been seen at the protest. Both have been arrested recently in connection with firearms offences unrelated to the Mayo protest. Two other men who have involved themselves are former members of the Provisional IRA, one of whom was released from prison under the Good Friday Agreement.

WHILE MOST OF the protests have been non-violent, there have been some criminal attacks. Last November two quarries supplying Shell were targeted and vehicles vandalised. In February a Shell store at Bellanaboy was destroyed by fire with the loss of timber and piping valued at €90,000. Smaller fires have been set at Glengad. A viable explosive device was discovered this week outside Shell's headquarters in Dublin.

Meanwhile Anti-Shell graffiti has been daubed on the Garda station and courthouse in Castlebar. A solicitors' firm in the town owned by the family of a Shell employee has been similarly targeted. Shell has responded by putting up to three security checkpoints on the entrance to its work sites in Glengad and Bellanaboy. A private security firm, Integrated Risk Management Services, is providing security inside the Glengad site. The company is owned by a former member of the Army Ranger Wing, Jim Farrell.

At the protests organised by various groups in Glengad, there were in excess of 40 arrests over the summer months. These arose from direct actions aimed at disrupting Shell's work on land or in the waters off Glengad beach.

Shell to Sea - who want Shell to process the gas at sea, thus minimising the impact on shore - are the most visible and vocal of the protest groups. It is their members who fill the tents at the Rossport Solidarity Camp in Glengad, though they number no more than 30 now.

Other groups involved in opposing Shell include Éirígí, a socialist republican party that campaigned against the Lisbon treaty and opposes Sinn Féin's endorsement of policing in the North. Pobal Chill Chomáin is made up of former Shell to Sea supporters, including members of the Rossport Five. It supports an alternative on-land refinery option. Pobal le Chéile is a group of business interests in Mayo that also supports the alternative on-land refinery option.

Shell to Sea's self-appointed leader and spokesman is Niall Harnett. He speaks with a middle-class Dublin accent but says he is from Clare. He reluctantly reveals his age as 42, but declines to give any further personal details. "Personal background isn't really that important," he says. Harnett participated in anti-war protests at Shannon Airport.

"We're not here to wave flags, okay?" he says of the protest. "We're here to stop the project. And that is what we will do."

Like many other protesters, he believes the project will damage the local environment with little, if any, financial reward for the State or local people.

When this reporter asks other protesters if their actions will make any difference in the long term, Harnett becomes visibly agitated. After a while, Harnett tells this reporter he is ill-informed, adding that there will be no more interviews "for the moment".

OTHERS IN THE camp are slightly more forthcoming. One protester, who identifies himself as Jack from Yorkshire, has vast international experience in protesting. The 48-year-old worked with Greenpeace for 10 years and is now freelance. He has campaigned all over the world against everything from the transport of nuclear waste by sea to live animal exports. "I follow my conscience. I give help where I feel it is needed."

He specialises in waterborne protest. He was one of a number of kayakers who paddled out to the Naval vessels and the Solitaire in recent weeks in Broadhaven Bay off Glengad beach to try and open dialogue with the ships' captains. With others, he also paddled into the waters to disrupt dredging activities.

Jack was also one of a number of UK and European protesters who came to Ireland after taking part in the Great Rebel Raft Regatta, a waterborne protest in Kent last month against the expansion there of a coal-fired electric power station. The Garda became so concerned at the influx of experienced international protesters into Mayo ahead of the Solitaire's arrival that they enlisted the assistance of Interpol in identifying them.

Another protester identifies himself as Paul, who is in his 20s and from Cork. He declines to give any further details for fear he might fall victim to "Garda intimidation". He travelled to Mayo to oppose "the occupation of Ireland by corporate entities". He vowed to remain in the area until a hunger strike by local Shell to Sea activist Maura Harrington ended. She entered her second week of hunger strike this week and vowed to continue until the Solitaire left Irish waters.

Shell announced on Thursday that the ship was leaving Killybegs, where it was moored since leaving Mayo. It needs its pipe-laying apparatus repaired in Glasgow before it can begin working in Glengad. Its withdrawal led to the Navy leaving, Garda numbers being reduced and many experienced international protesters also pulling out from Glengad. However, protester numbers are likely to swell again when the Solitaire returns. And the Garda and Navy will respond with the resources of the State.

Garda and Defence Forces sources point out that when the ship comes back, protesters cannot be allowed to gain the upper hand in preventing the laying of the pipeline.

"It would be a major national and international embarrassment and it just can't be allowed to happen," says one source.

Protesters are just as adamant. "We're not f***ing around, we will stop this," says one.

It would seem the stand-off has some way to run yet.