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Release Maura Harrington

11/12/09

éirígí chairperson Brian Leeson has called for the immediate release of Shell to Sea campaigner and Mayo resident Maura Harrington.

Harrington, a retired school teacher, was sent to Mountjoy Jail in Dublin yesterday [Thursday] after being sentenced to nine months imprisonment in a Mayo court.

The court case related to the cutting of a net beside Shell’s illegal Glengad compound, which cost around €160.

The sentence was initially suspended, but was activated when Harrington refused to sign a bond binding her to the peace, thereby restricting her right to protest against Shell.

Leeson said: “If there is one person alive today who symbolises the Twenty-Six County government’s attitude towards Irish citizens it is Maura Harrington.

“Maura has been imprisoned several times, dragged through the courts on a number of occasions, been forced to embark upon a hunger strike, assaulted by Gardaí and demonised all because of her determination to peacefully resist a Shell Oil project in her community.

“Meanwhile, the Dublin government bends over backwards to facilitate the greed of multinationals like Shell and the small minority of people in the Twenty-Six County state who own the majority of the wealth.”

Leeson continued: “Instead of jailing people like Maura Harrington, the Dublin government should be listening to her advice and taking back the natural resources that lie in the Corrib Basin. These resources belong, as of right, to the Irish people and they should be exploited for their benefit.

“Maura Harrington is guilty of no crime – she should be released immediately. It would make more sense to reserve her prison cell for one of the government ministers who are currently carrying out anti-social attacks on working class communities across the state.”

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