The continuing dispute surrounding the onshore gas pipeline in North Mayo is the latest in a series of populist territorial disputes involving infrastructural projects in rural Ireland. This article examines the mobilisation and framing processes of the Shell to Sea campaign, which opposed the gas pipeline due to the health and safety concerns of the local community. The campaign gained national recognition when five local farmers were jailed for their resistance to the project. The issue may yet be resolved through mediation, but a legacy of mistrust of multinationals and the state has been reinforced by these events. Here we examine the framing of these events in the context of longstanding concerns about resources which go back to the Kinsale Gas find in the 1970s.
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