Rossport Five

The Rossport Five (Irish: Cúigear Ros Dumhach) are Willie Corduff, brothers Philip and Vincent McGrath, Micheál Ó Seighin and James Brendan Philbin, from Kilcommon parish, Erris, County Mayo, Ireland.

Justice Finnegan, President of the High Court of the Republic of Ireland, jailed the five on 29 June 2005 by for civil contempt of court after refusing to obey a temporary court injunction forbidding them to interfere with work being undertaken by Shell on their land. The committal order was sought by Shell who intended to build a high pressure raw gas pipeline across land in Rossport to pipe gas from the offshore Corrib Gas Field. Three of the five men own land in Rossport: Vincent McGrath and Ó Seighin were brought to court along with them as they had assisted in blocking the Shell workers. About thirty others who had done the same were not charged.

There were protests all over Ireland during the period of the men's imprisonment, with filling stations of Shell, and its junior partner Statoil, being picketed and blockaded by both political activists and ordinary members of the public. The protests were driven by the Shell to Sea campaign (then TD Jerry Cowley liaised with the men in prison) which took its name following a meeting with Burren campaigners in January 2005 Shell to Sea. Defending his company's stance, Shell Ireland's CEO Andy Pyle said: "The fact is that we've gone through a process, and we have five people who don't like the outcome." All Shell sites around Rossport and Bellinaboy were blockaded by the men's neighbours, preventing work. Local TD Michael Ring said that Ireland was now a "dictatorship within a democracy". In an unusual move by the Irish judiciary, the men were told that a judge would be on hand at any time of day or night if they wanted to purge their contempt, by promising they would no longer hinder Shell employees.

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