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There aren’t many guarantees in life – death and taxes spring to mind: to which can be added open community hostility to giant fans.
Wherever wind farms have appeared – or have been threatened – big numbers of locals take a set against the monsters being speared into their previously peaceful – and often idyllic – rural communities. Their anger extends to the goons that lied their way to development approval – and the bent officials that rubber-stamped their applications and who, thereafter, actively help the operators ride roughshod over locals’ rights to live in and enjoy the peace and comfort of their own homes and properties.
The Irish have already hit the streets to bring an end to the fraud: some 10,000 stormed Dublin back in April last year. The sense of anger in Ireland – as elsewhere – is palpable (see our post here). And they’re tooling up for a raft of litigation in order to prevent the construction of wind farms, wherever they’ve been threatened on the Emerald Isle (see our post here).
Having seen their political betters co-opted by the wind industry and acquiesce – if not actively condone – the wanton and needless destruction of neighbours’ common law rights to live in and enjoy their own homes and properties, community defenders in Ireland are fighting back. And, as elsewhere, some of the tactics used have led to sanctimonious huffing and puffing from an industry devoid of any moral compass or human empathy, and always quick to ride roughshod over the living and the dead:
Wind Power Outfits – Thugs and Bullies the World Over
The MET masts used by hopeful wind power outfits to gauge wind speeds are the vanguard for every wind farm disaster: no MET mast data, no wind farm. As soon as they go up, the locals circle their wagons, marshal their forces and declare war on the proponent. No surprises there.
With the wind industry on the ropes in Australia, developers are quietly pulling down their MET masts at places like Robertstown and Hallett in South Australia – much to the delight of locals (see our post here).
In Ireland, and elsewhere, locals have sought to bring matters to a head by bringing MET masts plummeting back to earth, a little earlier than their wind weasel owners had planned.
Do you know who tore down this mast at Lismulladuff in Co Donegal?
Irish Mirror
Stephen Maguire
4 April 2015
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This giant 250ft mast was found cut down today on the site of Ireland’s biggest wind farm.
The scene of the crime at Lismulladuff outside Killygordon is currently the subject of local protests.
Plans were lodged with with An Bord Pleanala (ABP) a number of weeks ago by Planree Ltd for the Carrickaduff Wind Farm.
The giant wind farm will stretch from the iconic Barnesmore Gap in Donegal, along the Tyrone border, to near Castlefin.
The plans include an application for 49 giant wind turbines, some of which will be 500ft in height.
A recent meeting organised by protest group Finn Valley Wind Action (FVWA) group, was held in the Parochial Hall in the tiny village of Crossroads and attracted more than 300 locals.
The test mast was erected in recent weeks to take wind readings in the area.
Now gardai believe the mast was attacked in recent days but only discovered yesterday.
The group who are protesting over the planned wind farm have condemned the attack.
A spokesperson for the FVWA protest group condemned the attack on the test mast.
“It’s down so other than that we don’t know what happened. We can’t understand why anyone would want to do that.
“It’s bad form because it wasn’t bothering anybody. We think it was better up – as a size guide being half the height of the proposed wind turbines.
“The FVWA condemns this act of vandalism any anyone with any information should contact Ballybofey Gardai,” said the spokesperson.
Gardai from Ballybofey were on site this morning and have launched a full investigation into the attack.
Irish Mirror
The FVWA “Goldilocks” position is ‘just right’; as an effort to distance themselves from the guerrilla tactics employed – and understandable from that political perspective.
However, the saboteurs’ actions are – given what they’re up against – perfectly understandable too; and not without precedent:
More MET Mast Mayhem: Community Defenders Drop Mast in Fight to Save Homes near Bangor, Maine
MET Mast Mayhem: Scots Use Guerrilla Tactics to Stop These Things
Wave of Destruction: Ontario Wind Farm Neighbours in Open Revolt
While the Gardai set off to investigate a crime scene, it’s clearly arguable – on moral, if not legal, grounds – that what is laid out in the story (and the posts linked above) is conduct aimed at preventing a series of greater – and wholly unnecessary – crimes.
Faced with the threat of sonic torture, smashed property values and the risk of death and injury from self-igniting turbines and “uncontrolled flying blades” – from the developer’s potential victims’ viewpoint – it could equally earn the tag of community “self-defence”. And self-defence is a complete defence, to all bar murder.
As the defenders in Donegal (and elsewhere) were ostensibly acting to protect their homes, families and businesses from an acoustic trespasser (see our post here) the “castle doctrine” clearly comes into play.
That doctrine is one of some force and antiquity – it’s been on the books for nearly 400 years, when lawyer and politician Sir Edward Coke (pronounced Cook), scratched it out in The Institutes of the Laws of England, 1628:
“For a man’s house is his castle, et domus sua cuique est tutissimum refugium [and each man’s home is his safest refuge].”
And so, if a few pro-family and pro-community activists have to drop a MET mast here and there to make their point in the active defence of their homes, and the health and safety of their families, it’s action that’s probably excusable and clearly understandable. And, all the more so, when those that are paid handsomely to protect the health and welfare of their citizens, do little more than spin propaganda on behalf of the wind industry – a form of malign indifference, at best.
Many a good revolution kicked off with a handful of hotheads out to make their point, with a few misdemeanors against the property of the powerful; acts quickly deemed ‘threats to civil order’, if not ‘crimes against the state’, by those under threat – with the actors just as quickly rounded up in chains.
In the main, efforts aimed at suppressing the outrage that led the offenders to act, and punishing them for their actions, only added to their fury, and encouraged other, less passionate souls, to eagerly join the fray; and, thereafter, the rest – as they say – “is history”.
STOP THESE THINGS 
One missing MET Mast, Blowholes road, Cape Bridgewater from the CBWF, no reward offered … whereabouts unknown … be warned … could be coming to a location near you. Likely to be spotted in the hills or valleys where it’s windiest. You are advised to report any sightings, so further action may be taken by your unsuspecting community. Met masts are the innocent looking and difficult to spot pre-cursers to wind turbines, they are a red flag of warning; good on the Irish for taking action.
The ground at Lismulladuff is pretty much like a bog, very Dismullastuff.
And there is after all the international precedent of wind turbines themselves falling over from time to time, unassisted.
Could it not be an engineering design failure, like the turbines themselves?
The whole industry is a design failure and its beginning to fall over, with some additional fierce pushing from the masses the industry will fall all the quicker.
The mistake the industry and those who attempt to decide what people like and don’t like is they ignore that people live where they live because they like it, they see beauty in the things around them, including the peace and quiet, especially so in rural areas.
Those who write reports judging an area for companies probably have no soul or are incapable of understanding natural beauty is for ever changing but the installation of massive industrial machinery into a natural environment does not enhance something that has evolved over time, retaining the vista, beauty and peace of nature.
These companies are installing their turbines on unsteady footings which are proving to be unsustainable.
While this can be seen as an act against someone else’s property, it is also an act of defiance, an act in defence of homes, lives and a right to live in peace.
It is also evidence that people in Ireland are not going to allow the destruction of their land, environment, lives, livelihood and the amenity of their land they clearly appreciate.
No one can say they are sitting on their hands waiting to be attacked by massive intrusive and dangerous steel monsters, owned by those who have no empathy, or understanding of the environment, but only have an understanding of the money that can be made from installing these things where and when they please.
It is also evidence that an increasing number of people and communities are being driven to drastic acts, and that authorities need to recognise why they feel so desperate.
The feeling of helplessness is a driving force for change, and the attitudes of this industry and those who support it need to change their attitude. They may believe they have a right to harm – but THEY HAVE NO SUCH RIGHT.
Senvion’s Ceres project badly needs community and council support as well as the small matter of a PPA to renumerate the projects initial cost of $1.5 billion plus a little interest on the side!
I think its time for pretty boy in head office to come over and meet the locals . Lets face it pretty boy, those bumbling buffoons in the guru and pugsley haven’t exactly endeared themselves to the natives.
It’s time for new blood!
Its time for the “A” team himself to come out in his freshly dry cleaned Zegna suit and coiffured hair, just maybe a little rinse through the salt and pepper and the sweet scent of some old spice aftershave like they use back in Wycheproof in the B&S days.
As they say, “you can take the boy out of Wycheproof but you can’t take Wycheproof out of the boy.”
It may not be just met towers that are dropped before it is all over.