Dolphin's Barn Community Gardeners

Nurturing and reclaiming our city, our commons, our communities

Community Gardens are emerging throughout Dublin city. These small projects have large narratives. When we create community gardens we build alternative ways that our cities operate and can be made sustainable. We build positive spaces, social spaces and community. We address land use, workers rights and learn to collectively organise. We seed save, skill share, reclaim lost knowledge and recycle. We re-establish a relationship with the cycles of life, with nature and become aware of our deep connection to our environment and each other. Community Gardens are radical spaces and the good news is that they are on the increase.

Over the last 10 years the destructive development of Ireland has been driven by economic greed with little thought for communities, nature and our collective future. Our ecological foot print increased dramatically. In 2006 we were top of the list on our rubbish per capita per year of 31 countries surveyed in the EU. Our resource consumption and our waste creation had increased exponentially.

Community Gardens (Links):
South Circular Road Community Garden
Finglas Community Garden:
Belfast Community Garden
The Bridge Foot Street community garden, Dublin 8 tel Mairin 0871319578
Sitric Road Garden, Stoney batter tel Kaethe 0872444185
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Indymedia.ie Article: Finglas Community Garden
Indymedia.ie Article: Bold, Beautiful, Blooming Barcelona asks: What would it mean to win?
Indymedia.ie Event Notice: Climate Camp - Action for Social Justice - 15.-23. August 2009

Postmodernism: Oil Refineries in Scenic Areas

I arrived in occupied Erris on Friday evening having travelled down to take part in a national meeting of Shell to Sea groups. It had been a busy week for the campaign as the state had reacted to the ongoing resistance to Shell in Erris by seizing fishing boats, sending 7 people to jail without trial and banning two more from Co. Mayo. Not only had hundreds of state forces including the police, navy, air force and possibly the army been deployed to suppress protest in Erris but those of us doing solidarity work elsewhere had found from time to time that we were being followed by the secret police.

Related Links from Indymedia.ie:
Shell's Lackey's in the Media Out in Force Again | Message to an Bord Snip Nua. Resolve the Recession. Tax Shell! | Reports that Pat the Chief's boat was sunk last night | Massacre of Indigineous Amazonians in Peru - 25 dead and counting | The Pirates of Broadhaven Defeat Shell’s Armada | Prison van carrying Maura into Montjoy blockaded for 20 minutes by Dublin S2S | Shell security attack Willie Corduff after illegal Glengad compound dismantled | Scuffles At Mountjoy As Maura Harrington Is Jailed |

Related Links outside of Indymedia.ie
The website of Shell-to-Sea - CorribSOS.com
Keep the pressure up: Contact ALL TDs, Senators, and MEPs in Ireland and let them know how you feel about Shell in Rossport - Contact.ie

Event Notice: 'Power Struggle' -the Niger Delta and Corrib Gas Film Screening and Panel Discussion
Galway, Town Hall Theatre, Thursday 9th July, 2:00 PM

Joe Higgins making his point to Gardaí in Rossport

The sinking of fisherman Pat O Donnel’s boat and the arrival of Shell Oil’s pipe laying ship, The Solitaire, in Broadhaven Bay, Mayo, has brought the Corrib Gas field very much back into the news.

Some media are once again highlighting the high costs of the Garda operation to protect the Shell operation. Occasional articles appear denigrating those who are opposing the Shell operation in its current form. There are frequent dark hints about ‘subversive’ forces driving the opposition.

It was always thus when mere peasants or proletarians dared to oppose the powerful vested interests of the economic and political establishment . One hundred years ago when Big Jim Larkin arrived from Liverpool to organise the downtrodden manual labourers of Belfast and Dublin, his message of hope to them was demonised as a subversive plot to destroy society.

Related Links from Indymedia.ie:
Message to an Bord Snip Nua. Resolve the Recession. Tax Shell! | Reports that Pat the Chief's boat was sunk last night | Massacre of Indigineous Amazonians in Peru - 25 dead and counting | The Pirates of Broadhaven Defeat Shell’s Armada | Prison van carrying Maura into Montjoy blockaded for 20 minutes by Dublin S2S | Shell security attack Willie Corduff after illegal Glengad compound dismantled | Scuffles At Mountjoy As Maura Harrington Is Jailed |

Related Links outside of Indymedia.ie
The website of Shell-to-Sea - CorribSOS.com
Keep the pressure up: Contact ALL TDs, Senators, and MEPs in Ireland and let them know how you feel about Shell in Rossport - Contact.ie

Event Notice: 'Power Struggle' -the Niger Delta and Corrib Gas Film Screening and Panel Discussion
Galway, Town Hall Theatre, Thursday 9th July, 2:00 PM

Unite to Fight

New licences are about to be issued for the Oil and Gas fields off Donegal without resolving the terrible situation in Rossport. Demand a freeze on the Corrib Gas refinery project until the people of Ireland are consulted about whether we want to continue giving our gas and oil away to Shell.

Related Links from Indymedia.ie:
Reports that Pat the Chief's boat was sunk last night
Massacre of Indigineous Amazonians in Peru - 25 dead and counting
The Pirates of Broadhaven Defeat Shell’s Armada
Prison van carrying Maura into Montjoy blockaded for 20 minutes by Dublin S2S
Shell security attack Willie Corduff after illegal Glengad compound dismantled
Scuffles At Mountjoy As Maura Harrington Is Jailed
Shell in Mayo from the Indymedia.ie Archives

Related Links outside of Indymedia.ie
The website of Shell-to-Sea - CorribSOS.com
Keep the pressure up: Contact ALL TDs, Senators, and MEPs in Ireland and let them know how you feel about Shell in Rossport - Contact.ie

Event Notice: 'Power Struggle' -the Niger Delta and Corrib Gas Film Screening and Panel Discussion
Galway, Town Hall Theatre, Thursday 9th July, 2:00 PM

Judge leaving court after mocking presumption of innocence

This evening (Monday June 29th), Judge Mary Devins jailed seven Shell to Sea protesters at a special sitting of Ballina District Court. The seven protesters were arrested yesterday along with two others who were released on bail. The four women and three men who were jailed were remanded to appear at court this Friday, 3 July at 10:30 in the morning. The four women's cases will next be held in Court 44 in the Four Courts, while the three men's cases will be held in Harristown. Of the nine arrested yesterday, five were arrested for a lock-on, one for a climbing a tripod, and thee others for walking across a road. A full report on the circumstances of these arrests is available here

None of the protesters had previous convictions, yet they were refused normal bail conditions. The prosecuting garda sought to have all of the protesters remanded and Judge Devins agreed with the guard in all but two of the cases. The Judge predictably sided with the prosecution's argument that the activists were likely to re-offend, and some of the protesters, with overseas addresses, may not turn up for court. To date all Shell to Sea activists have showed up to court.

Judge Devins denied and/or deferred decisions on activists' legal aid, although it was evident that some of the protesters are not able to afford legal representation. Judge Devins said, “Legal aid can no longer be dished out like Smarties.” The two who were not remanded had to undertake an order to stay out of Co. Mayo and “not return to this county until the next court case.” The two who were allowed to leave were forced to pay the court €100.

In making these decisions Judge Devins has again clearly shown her disdain and bias against Shell to Sea protesters. Sending people to jail whose first offence is to be arrested for not obeying the directions of a guard is ridiculous and unprecedented. People up and down this country are arrested for this charge every weekend and do not end up in jail, so why are Shell to Sea cases special? If Judge Devins is really interested in saving money for the country by refusing legal aid, why is she wasting public money sending protesters to jail on minor public order offences? It seems that Judge Devins has seen the massive state repression going on down in Erris, and decided to get in on the act.

If you would like to send well wishes to the 7 in prison, please post them to the camp or email them to rossportsolidaritycamp@gmail.com
The camp address is Rossport Solidarity Camp, Glengad, Erris, Mayo.