Shell is widely proclaimed as a' progressive' energy company but on the eve of that meeting attended by Maura Harrington, Friends of the Earth were launching what they claimed as the other report, the 'Lessons not Learned' in response to the companies failure to implement its lofty principles, which were then not worth the paper they were written on.

Maura Harrington would tell the meeting in England and in Holland of the devastation that Shell was causing to the beautiful Mayo coastline of its neighbouring island. With delegates from other devastated countries, campaigning against the destruction of their environment, they informed the shareholders that they were accountable for such abuse.

Three years on, this small woman, principal of the local school in the area, who weighs less than seven stone has pledged to fast in protest at the destruction of the land and sea around her native home and at the treatment of peaceful protestors, most of whom have already lost out financially in terms of work and the decline in the value of their property by a Government in hock to the multinational giant.

As the oil and gas runs down the pipelines of the giant conglomerates, and their Chief Executives look forward to annual pension funds in excess of 2 million dollars, the majority of the people of one of the largest oil exporting companies in the world, Nigeria, are living on less than a dollar a day.

The people of Mayo know the devastation that Royal Dutch Shell has visited on the poor of the Niger Delta, Durbin, Sao Paolo, the Philippines, the places were oil and gas is being extracted from land rented or given to multinationals, for as the song goes 'money is their blood '.

Maura Harrington began a hunger strike ten days ago in front of the Shell compound on the Mayo coastline, when the worlds largest pipe laying ship, the aptly named 'Solitaire' contracted by Shell, began its operations to develop the controversial gas pipeline across the lands owned by the people of Mayo. The frail school principal has vowed to refuse food until the ship leaves the area.

Maura Harrington is no heroine and knows the consequences of such drastic action.

She has been to the forefront of the campaign of those vehemently opposed to the proposed Shell pipeline, the done deal between the multinational and the Dublin Government, which to date has cost the Irish taxpayer some 11 million Euros, to police a project opposed by the majority of the people of Mayo.

There is nothing natural about the Corrib gas project which began in 2000. The gas which comes from under the sea off the Mayo coast could be processed offshore. Instead Shell has gone for the cheaper option of pumping it at high pressure across part of the Erris peninsula to a terminal at Bellanaboy, through an area of scenic beauty and oblivious to the concerns of the local people who initially only wanted to be consulted about the development because of its close proximity to their homes.

Ignored by both Shell and the Dublin Government and convinced that the preparatory work had progressed beyond the safety boundary of what was authorised, the local residents had no option but to take matters into their own hands.

The result was the imprisonment of five individuals who were sentenced to indefinite imprisonment and served 94 days for refusing to obey a Court order directing them not to interfere with work on the pipeline.

The men who became known as the' Rossport Five' brought the 900 million euro Shell project to a complete standstill and generated international interest around the world.

There were solidarity protests in countries as far apart as Norway , Nigeria, South Africa, and Brazil with the result that the impact of the high profile campaign caused Shell to announce that they were' suspending operations in Mayo for a year.'

It was the second time that Shell had to postpone their operation due to community protests. In 1993, the Ogoni people in the Niger Delta, also succeeded in closing down Shell. The violence following that action resulted in the killing of 2000 of the Ogoni people and the displacement of 80,000 more.

That did not end the suffering of a people whose only misfortune was to live in a place that is the fifth largest supplier of crude oil to the US and Western Europe.

In the last thirty years, millions of barrels of crude oil have spilled over the land and waterways of the Niger Delta destroying the mangrove forests and causing a drastic decline in the fish catch. In addition, the aged and rusting network of pipelines that have regularly exploded and ruptured over the years, are cited as the primary cause of cancers and breathing problems as well as skin and intestinal diseases for the people who have to live around them.

The people of Mayo know of the destruction of the Ogoni peoples land in Nigeria and they know of the ruthlessness and power of the Shell multinational.

They know of the execution of the writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other protesters in that devastated land and they know that like the people of Nigeria, the people of Ireland will not benefit by one penny, from this exploitation of the natural resources of this small island.

Bord Gais has confirmed that there will be no financial benefit to Irish consumers from the Corrib gas field. It's not surprising then that people all over the country are beginning to wonder if some of Shell's enormous profits are not sitting in some of the Irish politician's offshore account.

Indeed the power of the money for blood profits of Shell in the second quarter of this year rose from 8.67 to 11 billion dollars and that's in a time of global turbulence. Exxon, who makes 90,000 dollars every minute magnanimously expressed sympathy to those consumers in many parts of the world, who this winter will face the prospect of eating or heating.

That's the kind of arrogance that prompted ordinary people to face imprisonment, to go on hunger strike, to face daily arrest and intimidation for what's at stake is not just the danger to their lives or the destruction of their lands;

What's at stake in Mayo is the profit over people concept of democracy, the integrity of a Government who has refused to protect the environmental and physical well being of its citizens and the ineptitude of the Irish law in the face of the power of global corporations.

Hundreds of Gardi have been drafted into the area of the Corrib coast not to protect the rights of citizens to protest but to arrest and harass local fishermen whose livelihood is also threatened by the proposed development.

The Gardi have threatened to detain anyone on any boat that approaches the Solitaire and have arrested a number of local fishermen for refusing to move their crab gear from the path of the pipe-laying vessel.

Meanwhile as we sit down to our Sunday lunch, we should be grateful to the Maura Harringtons, the Rossport Five and the people of Mayo who not only have taken on the power of Shell but are facing down a system of global greed which is the major threat not only to this island but the entire world.