‘Try playing a concert here Cher - there’d be no one to go to it’
BALLYLONGFORD fans of ‘70s pop icon Cher have taken issue with her stance on the LNG plant, saying she should try putting on a concert in the area to see how far she would get in the absence of a young audience there.
Cher is the latest A-list celebrity to wade in on the Estuary saga, calling on the Irish State not to back LNG for PCI status at EU level.
Her contribution comes as part of a growing international chorus ranged against the Shannon LNG plant over fears it will bolster the US fracked gas market.
Fracked gas is one of the hottest environmental flashpoints in the US at present, amid deep concerns over its impact on everything from groundwater to public health.
Cher shared the recent letter signed by actor Mark Ruffalo, documentary maker Michael Moore and up to 50 environmental, climate, medical and justice organisations that called on Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to withdraw State support for the LNG plant vis-avis its inclusion on the EU’s Projects of Common Interest (PCI) list.
She further stated on the post: ‘I know the Irish people don’t need actors and singers from Hollywood getting into their business but it’s because we care and we have had experience with the kind of people and companies who frack and sell the gas!!’
It’s cold comfort for her fans in North Kerry however, as they point to what they say is the rapidly diminishing population of the area.
“99 per cent of the people of North Kerry support the Shannon LNG project as it represents jobs for our area. There is no work for young people around the place, forcing them to leave,” Ballylongford Enterprise Company chairperson Noel Lynch told The Kerryman this week of the human cost of the area’s deprivations.
“While Cher is a fabulous singer, we would ask what she knows about the reality of North Kerry... she had a big concert in Dublin, but she wouldn’t be having one in North Kerry because there aren’t any kids to go to it,” Mr Lynch said.
He asked why groups were not taking issue with plans for a smaller LNG facility in Cork Harbour. “The fact is there is no European country with a coast that does not have an LNG facility. We need it for our security of supply.”
Irish gas field are to run out within nine years. “After we stop burning coal and oil we will have only one source of gas coming into the country and then we are entirely reliant on the pipeline from the UK.”
The Government, meanwhile, continues to include the plant on the PCI list; and it is believed that Shannon LNG is now preparing to re-open its offices in Listowel, which were closed in recent years.