Hunger strike in Mayo

Hi,
Since I last wrote on this a lot has happened.
It is not quite on the scale of Padraic Pearse saying that
"All has changed, changed utterly."
However, things have changed.

Firstly, I find it hard to delight in the decision by Maura Harrington to go on hunger strike.
I believe that the woman is intelligent and probably did not take this decision lightly.
I also believe that her family would be destroyed if she is allowed to die of hunger on the side of the road, ironically in a village where she sat in a bucket of a digger back 6 years ago.

What I find truly shocking about the whole situation is the fact that it had to come to this.
This country did not protect its' citizens but rather the workers of a multinational company with quite a poor record of health and safety (for locals not themselves). Police stated that they were there to protect both sides while they park their vehicles in Shell compounds in the area.
They chat with the Shell workers while shouting abuse and laughing at locals.
The army, police and navy were brought in huge numbers to ram this project down the throats of locals.
The mainstream media won't report on it unless Shell tell them to. Countless hours of footage of Irish people being kicked and beaten will not be discussed by the mainstream media.
The state broadcaster will not show it but will report stories of the most popular babies names of the year.
Not one state agency with responsibility for the environment has helped the locals.
Shell have gone across several SACs in their quest to bring this ashore. If you or I erected a hut on a SAC, we would be jailed.

So a woman goes on hunger strike to bring the issue to the attention of a nation, which has too many credit cards to care.
A woman goes on hunger strike to bring to the attention of the nation, the shameful giveaway of our oil and gas.

Maura, you are a heroine. You are a woman beyond reproach. You are a woman with morals that no Shell dollar can buy. I salute you for this. But I hope you do not die.