People continue battle against the masts
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It's all about cutthroat competition. The government policy to
privatise Telecom Éireann, which owns Eircell, has spurred this. The
companies are trying to outbid each other in the race to control as
much infrastructure as possible, which will raise the value of their
shareholdings. They need the masts to prove that they can expand ad
infinitum.
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``It's our land. It's up to us to look after of it.''
``. . .and they built them high places in all their cities, from the
tower of the watchmen to the fenced city. And they set them up
images and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree, .
.and wrought wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger. . .For they
served idols...'' (2 Kings, c.17. gratis Vincent Browne)
Digi phone masts weren't actually under discussion in Biblical times,
but they might as well have been. For whatever about the ``wicked
things'' and idolatrous practices of the worship of consumerism and
those little hand-held things without which people feel naked as a
result of cut-throat competition between Eircell and ESAT, high
things have gone up all over the country. They have been erected on
high places, town watchtowers and garda stations and now even under
the beautiful trees of the rolling hills of Wexford beside the
Barrow.
It was just under these lovely trees that Countess Bernstorff stood
with her staunch fellow campaigners last week as they persuaded a
Telecom Éireann lorry and Garda escort to turn back from the site at
Berkeley, outside New Ross, where Eircell plans yet another mast for
mobile phone users.
Were the Gardai and the government-owned state company, Telecom
Éireann, going to force these people to submit to a mast on their own
land, which none of them agree to?
The protestors are on 24-hour-a-day vigil to stop Eircell putting up
a mast above them on the hill. And they've been there now for three
weeks. The County Council turned down Eircell's original planning
application, but An Bord Pleannála overruled that decision.
``Over 50 people wrote letters,'' says Anne, of their detailed and
expensive submission to the planning board. They wrote ``please don't
do this, for myself and my family''. When An Bord Pleannála gave
permission, over the head of the county council, people just couldn't
understand. People said: ``We wrote to them, and told them what we
thought. I had to tell them,'' records Anne ``that the Bord didn't
really care. It was terrible.''
The campaigners are camped out in a container in the bitter cold of
last week. Its Alice in Wonderland stuff.
``Would you have a cup of tea Countess?''
``I think I would.''
It was badly needed. The campaigners, at least 200 strong, are
extremely well organised.
ne Bernstorff is no dozer but an intelligent and articulate woman,
who lives right next door to the proposed site. She describes how a
deputation had visited Eircell to discuss the proposed mast:
``A young lady offered us tea and biscuits and told us how she loved
the country. We said that we wouldn't take tea or biscuits, that we
were touched by her love of the country, but could we talk to someone
who could deal with our quite detailed questions.'' That didn't turn
out to be the case.
``Nor could they give us a written guarantee that there would be no
ill effects from the masts, nor would they take out insurance against
possible damaging consequences.''
What do they want so many masts for?
``It's all about cutthroat competition. The government policy to
privatise Telecom Éireann, which owns Eircell, has spurred this,''
Anne replies. ``The companies are trying to outbid each other in the
race to control as much infrastructure as possible, which will raise
the value of their shareholdings. They need the masts to prove that
they can expand ad infinitum, which the technology of
third-generation phones will require.''
It is the next generation of phones which will see Internet
connection and word-processing on a small fold-out keyboard, shopping
and banking, and video phoning all available by mobile phone. By last
year, Telecom's network had grown to a record 204,000 customers.
They estimate that there are 550,000 mobile users in the country now.
By the year 2000, they estimate that this will have grown to at
least 1 million users.
Is reception poor in this area?
``No, We're told its excellent. They have more than sufficient
capacity in this area, they've masts already down at Rathsillagh and
Clonroche, only a few miles away.''
Why don't Eircell and ESAT share masts? Anne looks with some
disbelief at the stupidity of the question. ``Because they are in
competition.''
What do they want so many masts for?
``They can always be used. In the long run, they are useful to hang
all sorts of little things on.'' And of course Anne is right. There is
no limit to the little things they might hang on the mast, once they
have it up - all 18 meters of it.
Collette O'Connell from Dungarvan has delved into the complex issues
around the question of the health hazards of microwave/non-ionising
radiation, the sort of radiation transmitted from the MMDS and mobile
phone transmitters which are placed on these masts.
``People are worried at what it will do to their health, she says,
``but they are also worried because it's our land. These companies
can't just come in here and tell us what to do with it. Its up to us
to look after it.
``Last year, ESAT tried to put a mast up above us at the other side of
the hill, at Lacken - the very place where in 1798 the United
Irishmen camped during the battle of New Ross. They say that 3,000
people were killed there. That was no place for a Digiphone mast, and
we defeated ESAT.
``Now it's the turn of Eircell, but we are determined. All the farmers
here are not having it on their land. We'll stay here until Eircell
goes away.
``I really don't like the things that are happening. The community
values are getting forgotten, the spirit which grew out of poverty,
of helping each other, is getting left behind. Now it has become too
individualist. Everyone is out for the quick buck, the tricky deal,
to gain a commercial advantage. It's as if we've grown too fast, with
the EU and all that. We are fudging the edges of integrity.''
That is something Anne Bernstorff and her fellow campaigners won't be
doing.
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