People Before Profit’s Denman Rooke rejoins protest against prospecting in Connemara
People Before Profit’s candidate Denman Rooke has once again joined the community of Connemara in opposing foreign companies prospecting for valuable minerals in the region. Rooke first stood with protestors in 2019, in a movement which successfully blocked mining attempts in the area.
However locals have had to rally once more, with Rooke attending a meeting at the Maam Community Centre on Saturday 21st March to discuss Minister Darragh O’Brien’s plans to award prospecting licenses for the villages of Maam and Corr na Móna.
The licenses would grant BTU Metals Corp the permission to dig in search of base metals, barytes, silver, gold and platinum group metals in the townlands of Breenaun, Carrowgarriff, Cleggan, Crumlin East, Doogtha, Farnaght, Glenlusk, Griggins, Kilmilkin and Moneenmore. Prospecting Licence areas PL4563 & PL4564.
Speaking after the meeting, Rooke said that he was sickened but not surprised. “Since Ireland’s foundation, successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael governments have had one economic model: sell as much of Ireland off as possible to the most favourable bidder,” said Rooke, “We’ve seen it with Shell in Rossport, with the selling of Ireland’s seaweed, and now they’re contemplating allowing a foreign company to destroy the beauty and historic significance of Connemara”.
Yet as Niall Joyce, representative for the community, explained to attendees, mining would not just have disastrous consequences for the area’s stunning historical beauty, but for its biodiversity. It also risked potentially poisoning Galway’s main water supply.
Moreover it would significantly impact the Joyce Country and Western Lakes GeoPark, which is an eco-tourism initiative which has recently been given the greenlight for UNESCO Global geopark recognition.
Rooke also shared the concern of others present that the government’s support of CETA, the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, might mean that foreign companies could feasibly sue the Irish State if their efforts to render profit from Irish resources were somehow disrupted.
“The people in government know the price of everything and the value of nothing,” said Rooke, “they treat the land and the people as commodities to be traded in, with no regard for the future and the damage being done.”
Rooke continued “locals have to abide by quite stringent rules and regulations to safeguard Ireland’s natural heritage. Granting a mining company permission to plunder the land makes a complete mockery of the law, and of the sense of civic responsibility that should bind people together.”
Rooke also expressed bewilderment at the presence at the meeting of by-election candidates Noel Thomas, Thomas Welby and Sean Kyne.
“I thought it was incredibly cynical to see two former Fianna Fáil representatives and a Fine Gael candidate at the meeting. These are people whose own parties are the very reason we’re in this mess, and they’re pretending to be interested in supporting the people now!” said Rooke in disbelief. “It was bizarre, for example, to hear Noel Thomas voice concern to the room, given that he was a Fianna Fáil representative in 2019 at the time his party first tried mining the area”.
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