GlÓR NA HAOISE - Songs of Solidarity and Resistence

We all know the story of how Royal Dutch Shell bullied the people from An Ros Dumhach (Rossport).

Last saturday Rónán Ó Snodaigh played a concert in An Taibhdhearc in Galway for the launch of 'GlÓR NA HAOISE - Songs of Solidarity and Resistence' - a lavish and beautifully presented 3-cd collection celebrating the on-going campaign of civil disobedience.

The back cover of the cd has a quote from the singer and storyteller Liam Clancy - 'Written history is nothing more than the propaganda of the victors. If you want the real history you'll have to go to the folksongs.'

This 3-cd collection is just that - folksongs - from Francis Black, Mickey Coleman Singer/Songwriter Tyrone Ireland, Noelle MacDonnell, Margaretta D'Arcy, Paranoid Visions, Camilla Cantata, Mick Blake, Donal Finn, The Living Stream, Mícheál Ó Séighin, Jinx Lennon, Sinéad Uí Fhaoláín, Sean Cregan, Captain A, Sorcha Fox, Breeda Murphy, Louis de Paor agus John Spillane, Dr Owens Wiwa, Catriona Murphy, The People of Ogoniland, Astrid Ní Mhongáín, Liam Ó Maonlaí, Finbar Cafferkey, John Hoban, Fintan Vallely, Éamon Ó Súilleabháin agus Seosamh Mac Donnacha, Micheál Ó Conghaile, Donal O'Kelly, Chris Duignan, Tara Sheehy, Barry Johnston, Damhnait de Brún, Queen elvis, Cormac Lally, Kevin Burke (musician) & Ged Foley, Treasa Elsafty, Ethel Corduff, Din de Paor, Gréagóir Ó Dúill, Rita Ann Higgins, Breandán Ó Beaglaoich, Esse Egesse, The Rebel Souls, Indica, Cian Finn, Barry Krishna, Lee Barley & the Rossport Solidarity Camp, Colm Henry & Wildfire, Rosemary Woods, Leo Moran & Anto Thistlethwaite, The Latchiko's, Áine Uí Fhoghlú, Pete Mullineux, Sarah Clancy, Lee Barley, An Galar Dub, This Natchez, Niamh N Lochlainn, ian Lynch, Damien Dempsey.
'Nuff said!


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GLÓR NA HAOISE
SONGS OF SOLIDARITY

In the autumn of 2011 shell announced in their monthly newsletter ‘corrib gas update’ that the tunnel boring machine (tbm) which was to bore under sruth mhada chonn estuary had been built, and was soon to arrive in erris. In naming the machine, they declared, ‘fionnuala has been chosen, in honour of the legend of the children of lir, which has a strong local resonance’.

Fionnuala, of the children of lir, who, along with her three brothers, spent their last 300 years on the waters of iorras domnann (erris). And fionnuala, shell’s tunnel boring machine, weighing in at nearly 500 tonnes. A behemoth to dredge through ancestral memories. In appropriating the name of fionnuala, shell would have us fall under a spell. An amnesia of forgetting and accepting. That which destroys the old myth becomes the new myth. A response was called for.  And so it was that ‘glór na haoise’ came to be, to reclaim, restore and give voice to the pain and indignation felt by the people of northwest mayo and to celebrate their long stand for truth and justice.

Each song and poem tells its own unique part of the story of the struggle. They tell of the arrival of enterprise oil and its successor royal dutch shell, and of the early years of the shell to sea campaign. They tell of the jailing of the rossport five now ten years past and of the execution, with the connivance of shell, of nigerian activist ken saro-wiwa twenty years ago.

They speak of the potentially lethal attacks on local farmer willie corduff, who was assaulted by several balaclaved men while lying under a shell truck in protest, and of fisherman pat o’donnell,  whose boat was boarded and sunk also by masked men, an event the gardaí failed to investigate adequately, and for which no-one was ever held accountable. They tell of the arrival of shell’s pipe-laying ship the solitaire, and the hunger strike of shell to sea campaigner maura harrington. Of the arrival off the coast of two irish navy gunboats and hundreds of gardaí and private security, all to surround and repress a small community of campaigners. They tell of garda brutality, courtroom lies, booze and bribes. They sing of the indomitable spirit of the rossport solidarity camp, their actions, sit-ins, lock-ons and laughter. And of the journey, arrival, sinking and resurrection of  shell's tunnel boring machine in the boglands of gleann na muaigh.

They sing of freedom and of the beauty of erris,

in celebration, we remember…

songsofsolidarity.com