ti-mast protestors turn back the `goons'
They came at 10.45am on 13 September. First, a small unmarked van, followed by a large lorry with Dublin registration. It had no Eircell markings, but it had all the equipment needed to erect a mobile phone mast on the land above the laneway at Berkely, Wexford, just above the Enniscorthy-New Ross Road
The pickets have stood firm, for 6 months, on a 24-hour rota. Local farmers and families have protested at the danger to health if Eircell is allowed to go ahead and put up another mast on the high ground at Berkely.
Immediately, a picketer whistled up the crew. They leapt into the laneway. Two women chained and locked themselves underneath the van to the front axle of the lorry and another took up position immediately in front of the lorry. It was dangerous. But then the farming community around the proposed site for an Eircell mast don't want it up. Above all, they fear that radio waves are a danger to health, a possible carcinogen, a cancer-causing agent.
``Nobody yet knows the effects of these masts. We don't want to be the guinea pigs,'' says Countess Anne Bernsdorff, one of the fiercest campaigners against the Eircell mast. ``Once the protestors were chained by arms and waist to the lorry, the drivers were uncertain what to do next. The gardai arrived and said that as it was a civil matter, the intruders should remove themselves.'' They did.
Last month, the protestors entered into a tripartite meeting, between themselves, Eircell and politicians from the County Council, including Labour TD, Brendan Howlin, who had agreed to bring the sides together in an attempt to resolve this long and desperate dispute.
``The meeting lasted eight and a half hours,'' says Anne, ``but it resolved nothing. Eircell was intransigent.''
The politicians gave up. The protestors have not. Anne is very angry. ``Why should these private companies be allowed to trample on people's constitutional rights? Eircell already has a powerful mast on top of White Mountain, which ensures 5-bar reception throughout the area. Why do they want another mast? Is it because they want to rent space out to other companies, which don't happen to have a mast on the top of White Mountain?
``You wouldn't know, should they get their mast, what other little things they might hang on it. All these `little things' might represent a possible threat to lives of local people. Nobody, but nobody, knows as yet the danger to our health.''
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