Mayo Sinn Féin councillor Gerry Murray criticised the selling off of national resources to gas and oil exploration companies 20 years ago.

I agree.

He hit out at the Garda for upholding the interests of Shell and the Norwegian government rather than the common good.

I couldn't disagree more.

The gardai must uphold the law, no matter how we feel about the law. Criticise the law not the lawkeepers.

Dr Mark Garavan, a lecturer at GMIT and a leading member of the Shell to Sea campaign is to run for the Seanad.

The Corrib gas project will be one of the environmental issues on which Dr Garavan intends to campaign for one of six university seats in the Seanad. Three are held by NUI and three by Dublin University (Trinity College).

The move is understood to be part of a strategy within the Shell to Sea campaign in relation to the forthcoming general election. This may involve canvassing for politicians supportive of the campaign's stance - currently Dr Jerry Cowley (Ind) in Mayo, and members of the Labour Party, Green Party and Sinn Féin in that and other constituencies.

This latest move will bring the Gas protest back to the forefront as an election issues and throw a bit more fuel into the fire in the Mayo Constituency.

Harry Barrett, Labour's Candidate, is an Erris man who has backed the protesters all the way. This latest step could see Barrett's Erris vote solidify into a real chance at upsetting the tables on FF and FG who are convinced that they have Mayo to themselves.

Harry Barrett, who is a good friend and regular reader of this blog, has set up his own blog at www.harrybarrett.blogspot.com The blog is only in warm up stage at the moment and he has just a few press releases up at the moment but the candidate for the Labour Party in Mayo is looking forward to a more formal interaction with the voters and the world wide web.

We have all heard of the Ken Saro Wiwa especially in relation to the Rossport controversy but if we are honest what do we know about the man and his life?

Ken Saro Wiwa was the son of Chief Jim Wiwa of the Ogoni people, an ethnic minority whose homelands in the Niger Delta of Nigeria. Saro Wiwa was a author, television producer, and environmental activist who campaigned against the environmental damage being done to the area by the oil industry. The oil-rich homeland of the Ogoni people has been subject to oil extraction since the 1950s.

Saro Wiwa served initially as spokesperson, and then as President, of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People and led a nonviolent campaign against environmental damage associated with the operations of multinational oil companies including Shell.

Saro Wiwa feel foul of the government because he had strongly defended the rights of the Ogoni people of the Niger delta and criticised the government’s partnership with the oil companies and in particular Shell. Because this oppostion was damaging the oil industry and thus the government’s pocket Ken Saro Wiwa was imprisoned in 1994 by order of Nigeria's then dictator Sani Abacha on a bogus murder charge.

Despite widespread international protests, Ken Saro Wiwa, with other eight Ogoni rights activists, was hanged after a show trial in Port Harcourt, on 10 November 1995.

The execution of Ken Saro Wiwa resulted in the suspension of Nigeria from the Commonwealth of Nations and United States lead many countries in imposing economic sanctions on Nigeria.

Following nearly 16 years of military rule in Nigeria, a new constitution was adopted in 1999, and a peaceful transition to civilian government was completed and sanctions have been lifted.
In this, the 11th anniversary of his execution, all over the world, Ken Saro Wiwa is remembered but what is his legacy?

What can we learn from his life and death and should it affect our views on the Corrib Gas protests?

I have concerns over the police use of CCTV in small towns like Westport (pop. 5,000) as I feel not only is the population too small to require such an expensive system but that as we are such a small town it is very likely that the those watching you will in fact know you personally thus breaching your privacy.

I am opposed to whole scale CCTV surveillance as I think it breaches my rights as a citizen to go about my business without being subjected to surveillance. I also believe that CCTV is used to justify less Gardai on the streets.

I don't believe that CCTV is either effective as a deterrent to crime or as a useful tool for crime solving. The number of cases it is used in is low and the number of convictions even lower.

I am not on my own on this one. The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) has concerns in this area also. According to the ICCL "a series of studies that seriously questions the effectiveness of CCTV in preventing crime. Certainly, CCTV does not seem to achieve anything that can't be achieved by common sense measures such as better street lighting or more effective police patrols in city-centres.

"In recent years, many politicians have suggested that extensive spending on camera schemes was a panacea to street crime. Now it is clear that this is not the case. What is also disturbing is that the impact of such schemes on the privacy rights of the public at large has been largely ignored."

You can read more about that here.

Accrding to the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner, staff must be made aware that CCTV is in place and what the purpose of the cameras are. If staff are told that the cameras are there to protect staff against violent customers that’s the only thing they can be used for.

CCTV cameras can’t be used for monitoring attendance at work or to see whether staff are sitting at their desk all day long.

For more information on this read this article

There is also an interesting blog in the UK on this subject and the issues involved here.

So the issue is not as black and white as some people claim and I hope that after reading this post you might see my concerns or at least have questions over such systems. CCTV is not benign, it does affect your rights. Think about it before you support it in your town or area.

(I do however accept that it is necessary in areas like O'Connell St and high crime areas but this should be the exception not the norm)

Don't let them give you the" eye in the sky", demand more Gardai on your streets instead.

Note: we don't have CCTV in Westport..........yet!!

Westport is to become the first Fairtrade town in Connaught and joins the Fairtrade city of Galway in leading the way for other towns in the region. The announcement was made on Friday that Westport will receive its official Fairtrade status this week piping Castlebar to the post by just over a week.

Westport’s Fairtrade Steering Committee was established in early 2005 with the aim of making achieving Fairtrade status for the town. The committee members are Edel Hackett, Mary Walsh, Roisin Moran, Sue Minish, Brian Quinn, Cllr Keith Martin, Gemma Hennesy, Sheila O’Donnell and Bríd McAuley.

Last Friday committee member Mary Walsh received a written confirmation for Fairtrade Ireland that Westport had met all the required conditions and would now be conferred with the Fairtrade town status.

At last week’s council meeting I expressed grateful thanks to the people of Westport, Westport Town Council and the businesses and shoppers of the town for their support of the Fairtrade ideal. I said that the councillors' unanimous support for the proposal and the support of the council’s staff had made a huge difference to their campaign.

Ever since we established the Steering committee we have been out and about spreading the word about Fairtrade and what it means for farmers and producers in the developing world. When we started in 2005 with a tea and coffee morning after church in Carrowbeg House we never dreamed that we would get such support and that people would embrace the idea so quickly. We owe a lot to the shoppers of Westport who made the switch to Fairtrade tea, coffee, bananas, wine, chocolate and the whole range of projects. We are also grateful to the shops, cafes, restaurants, schools, businesses and organisations which made the switch over to the Fairtrade mark. The children of Westport in particular took the Fairtrade project to heart.

The Fairtrade committee are planning a celebratory tea and coffee morning for the New Year and also hope to have a ceremony to mark the town’s achievement towards the end of January.

In order to achieve the status of Fairtrade Town for Westport the town had to accomplish the following.
A local steering group is convened to ensure continued commitment to its Fairtrade Town status.
The Town Council passes a resolution supporting Fairtrade, and agrees to serve Fairtrade coffee and tea in the office and at all its meetings and continues to support the Fairtrade Mark.
A range of FAIRTRADE Mark products are available in the Town’s shops, supermarkets, local cafes, restaurants, and hotels.
FAIRTRADE Mark products are used by a Flagship business as well as 12 other local businesses and organisations.
This had to include schools, churches, large offices and local voluntary groups.
The group attracts media coverage and popular support for the campaign. A significant number of schools become Fairtrade Schools. They use the Civil Social and Political Education pack on Fairtrade for secondary schools and the Alive 2008 programme for Primary Schools.

Fairtrade is a better deal, a ‘fair’ deal for producers and workers in developing countries. Any product carrying the distinctive Fairtrade logo is guaranteed to have paid the farmer a fair price for his product, ensuring they were not exploited. You will be giving farmers in developing nations a fair day’s wage and the chance to improve the conditions for their families and communities, and isn’t that what we all ultimately want for ourselves?

Fairtrade Westport has a website at http://www.fairtradewestport.com/

I am afraid that the Bord Pleanala ruling of November marks the end of the road (pardon the bad pun) for the "Stop this Road!" campaign. This was our campaign to make the council abandon its planned road and bridge over and adjacent to the Railway Line Walk in Westport.

I wish to say I am proud of the support which we received and wish to compliment Westport Civic Trust for its hard work.

For more information on this campaign you can visit our website. Here is a link to the Bord's decision.

Here is the ruling of the Bord

"The Board decided not to direct the local authority to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement. The Board considered that a road development that has commenced under the authority of Section 78 of the Local Government (Planning and Development) Act, 1963 and in accordance with the procedures set out in Part X of the Local Government (Planning and Development) Regulations, 1994 is entitled to be carried out in accordance with the terms of that procedure and that intervention by the Board to direct an EIS after a project has commenced is not provided for or contemplated in the legislation and would introduce a great degree of uncertainty, may be quite ineffectual, create major complications in respect of contracts and give rise to major diseconomies in the execution of the project. Accordingly, the Board decided to decline to formally assess any request to it to direct an EIS in respect of any project that has commenced pursuant to a Section 78/Part X procedure."

It is important to note that the Board did not rule that this road does not need an EIS. What they have said is that have declined to assess whether the road needs an EIS because it is already under construction. None the less it marks the end of the campaign.

I have been very proud to represent the objectors to this project in the council chamber, in the media and on the protest rallies. Thank you all for your support and hard work.

Ever since we set up the Fairtrade committee in Janurary 2005 we have received great support from the people of Westport and from the businesses in town like Super Valu, Centra and Ylang Ylang. Both churches came on board immediately and we were able to launch it after Mass with a tea morning for the congregations of St Mary's and Holy Trinity.

With the unanimous support of my fellow councillors we passed a motion in support of Fairtrade products and began working on the seven steps to becoming a Fairtrade town.

Today Westport Fairtrade Steering Committee have been notified by Fairtrade Ireland that Westport is to be granted status this week. It will officially become a Fairtrade Town a week before Castlebar does.

I am delighted that our town has achieved Fairtrade Status and now becomes the first Fairtrade Town in Connaught to join Galway which is a Fairtrade city.

Fairtrade is a better deal, a ‘fair’ deal for producers and workers in developing countries. Any product carrying the distinctive Fairtrade logo is guaranteed to have paid the farmer a fair price for his product, ensuring they were not exploited. You will be giving farmers in developing nations a fair day’s wage and the chance to improve the conditions for their families and communities, and isn’t that what we all ultimately want for ourselves?

Ever since we established the Steering committee we have been out and about spreading the word about Fairtrade and what it means for farmers and producers in the developing world. When we started in 2004 with a tea and coffee morning after church in Carrowbeg House we never dreamed that we would get such support and that people would embrace the idea so quickly. We owe a lot to the shoppers of Westport who made the switch to Fairtrade tea, coffee, bananas, wine, chocolate and the whole range of projects. We are also grateful to the shops, cafes, restaurants, schools, businesses and organisations which made the switch over to the Fairtrade mark. The children of Westport in particular took the Fairtrade project to heart.

Over the last two years we on the committee have been at the Food and Craft Markets on the Mall, in the St Patrick’s Day Parade, in the schools, in the shops and on the streets spreading the word about Fairtrade. A highlight of our campaign was when Alivera Kiiza a Fairtrade Coffee famrer and the first woman manager of the fair-trade coffee cooperative in Tanzania was our guest at a talk about Fairtrade for the secondary schools.



In order to achieve the status of Fairtrade Town for Westport we had to accomplish the following.

A local steering group is convened to ensure continued commitment to its Fairtrade Town status.