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Irish police baton charge protestors at Shell terminal site
AFP
DUBLIN
Petroleumworld.com 11 11 06
Irish police baton-charged protestors blocking access to the construction site of a Shell gas terminal in County Mayo in the west of the country on Friday, a spokesman said.
Police said one protestor had been hospitalised and several other people, including members of the force, had suffered minor injuries during the confrontation.
The building of the terminal at Bellanaboy and the route of an onshore pipeline to bring gas ashore from the Corrib Field about 70 kilometres (40 miles) off the coast has been strongly opposed by some local residents.
Last year, five men -- the so-called Rossport Five -- were jailed for 94 days over their refusal to stop picketing initial work on the project.
Protests have been staged at the Bellanaboy site every day since October 2, when construction work resumed after lengthy consultations and a number of safety studies.
Police said the number of protestors had swelled from the usual 50 or so to about 300 on Friday as extra people were bussed in from as far away as Dublin.
The protestors staged a sit-in on the road in an effort to stop construction workers getting to the site.
A police spokesman said an effort to push a car into police lines had triggered the confrontation.
"That was the initial matter. Things led on from that. The road was cleared. I am not aware of any arrests," he told AFP.
Martin Ferris, a lawmaker from the Sinn Fein party, which has backed the protests, criticised "heavy handed" police intervention.
Ireland has no offshore oil and is heavily reliant on imported gas from Britain.
AFP 10 1238 GMT 11 06
Copyright© 2006 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
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