Pobal Chill Chomáin - Misplaced Pages

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Pobal Chill Chomáin (PCC, English: People of Kilcommon, also informally known as Gas to Glinsk) is a pressure group based in the parish of Kilcommon, County Mayo, Ireland. It emerged from the larger Shell to Sea campaign in April 2008. The main goal of Shell to Sea is that Royal Dutch Shell, StatoilHydro and Marathon Oil refine the Mayo gas offshore, as is done with Ireland's only other gas project, the Kinsale gas. This would mean it would no longer be necessary to transport raw, untreated natural gas at high pressure through inhabited areas to the intended refinery site at Bellanaboy.

After many years of campaigning against Shell and the Irish government's actions (see Corrib gas controversy), PCC have put forward a proposal that the refinery site be moved to Glinsk, a large uninhabited area a few miles to the east of the intended pipeline route and refinery. This would allow Shell and its partners the cost saving of refining the gas on land, while rerouting the pipeline away from inhabited areas. The proposal was publicly backed by Labour Party president Michael D. Higgins, Bishop of Killala, Dr. John Fleming, and local Fine Gael Teachta Dála Michael Ring. The proposal was almost immediately rejected by Shell and the government.

Some members of the Rossport Five are part of the group (Vincent McGrath is its chairman), which is more localised to northwest Mayo than Shell to Sea. A large number of those involved with the new campaign comes from the parish of Kilcommon, which includes the refinery site and all of the intended pipeline route. Many involved with PCC have resumed their involvement with Shell to Sea, after Shell and the Irish government rejected their proposal.

PCC concentrates more on political lobbying and legal avenues than physical protest, and have submitted an application to the European Commission seeking an injunction suspending State consents for the Mayo gas project. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has deemed a PCC complaint about the three oil companies involved admissible (for breaching their guidelines for multinationals), and has offered to mediate between the two sides. After the failure of a forum which refused to countenance any going back on decisions already made regarding the refinery and pipeline locations, Shell and the government at last agreed to talks without preconditions in March 2009. Although seen as more moderate than Shell to Sea, PCC members have also reported being under surveillance by the Garda Síochána.

PCC publicly supports some Shell to Sea protest actions, but not all. It backed Pat O'Donnell's actions in the summer of 2008, and has condemned what it describes as the "politically-motivated imprisonment" of Shell to Sea campaigner Maura Harrington in March 2009.

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