Publication of Our Story – the Rossport 5 in January

Publication of Our Story – the Rossport 5 in January
Note from Rob Allen:

For the first time the Rossport Five talk directly abouttheir experiences confronting themight of Shell Oil.

There are vivid descriptions of the sense of siege felt inthe small village of Rossport asthe enormous Corrib gasproject was being prepared and developed. The men andtheirwives describe their frantic efforts to prevent Shellentering their lands.

In moving language, they detail their isolation and fear asShell applied concertedpressure on them to consent to theirproject. This culminated in Shell's decision to seektocommit the men to prison indefinitely.

The book provides vivid first-time accounts of their prisonexperiences, how these ordinary citizens endured theefforts by the State and the multinational to force themtoabandon their opposition.

The men outline the wave of support which reached them inprison and made themmore steadfast in their determinationto defend the health and safety of their familiesandcommunities. Finally, they describe how these experienceshave affected them personally.

This dramatic account offers a series of telling insightsinto contemporary Ireland. In his introduction to the book,Mark Garavan (see below), makes this observation. "Ibelieve that the authentic voice of the Rossport Five heardin this book will stir the conscience of all who read it.Their story is presented so that others may have hopethatthey too can shape the world in which they live."

Compiled by Mark Garavan, a lecturer in sociology at theGalway-Mayo Institute of Technology in Castlebar, Co Mayo,and a spokeperson for the Shell-to-Seacampaign, Our Story–the Rossport 5 will be published nationwide by Small WorldMedia on Thursday, January 4, 2007, and launched in Dublin.The book will be published in Britain at the end of Januaryand worldwide at the end of February.

See http://www.irelandfrombelow.org/