The Rossport Five are James Brendan Philbin, brothers Philip and Vincent McGrath, Willie Corduff and Micheál Ó Seighin. These five men from County Mayo, Ireland were jailed on 29 June 2005 by Mr Justice Finnegan, President of the High Court for contempt of court. They refused to obey a court injunction forbidding them to interfere with work being undertaken by Shell, who are building a high pressure gas pipeline across land in Rossport to pipe unrefined natural gas from the offshore Corrib Gas Field, 3 of the five men own land in Rossport,Phillip McGrath has a house in Rossport and Micheál Ó Seighin lives approx five miles from Rossport in Stonefield. The government granted planning permission to Shell to build an onshore gas processing plant and to supply it using a high pressure pipeline which runs as close as seventy metres to the houses of some of these men. County Mayo (Irish: Contae Mhaigh Eo, the plain of the yews) is a county on the west coast of Ireland. ... June 29 is the 180th day of the year (181st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 185 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The High Court of the Republic of Ireland is a court which deals at first instance with the most serious and important civil and criminal cases, and also acts as a court of appeal for civil cases in the Circuit Court. ... Contempt of court is a court ruling which, in the context of a court trial or hearing, deems an individual as holding contempt for the court, its process, and its invested powers. ... An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a court order that either prohibits or compels (enjoins or restrains) a party from continuing a particular activity. ... Royal Dutch Shell plc is a major energy company, one of the top four vertically integrated private sector oil, natural gas, and gasoline companies in the world (along with BP, ExxonMobil, and Total). ... The Corrib Gas Field is a natural gas deposit off the northwest coast of Ireland. ...

The men were released from Cloverhill Prison on 30 September, after 94 days, when Shell applied to the High Court to have the injunction lifted. This came after media and political scrutiny of the case. A mediator, Mr Cassells, has been appointed by the Irish Government to try to resolve the dispute between the five men and Shell. September 30 is the 273rd day of the year (274th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 92 days remaining. ...

An analysis of the background to this case can be found at the website of the Centre for Public Inquiry. http://www.publicinquiry.ie/reports.php#ld196