Qualla: Rossport

Rossport: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On 29 June 2005, five farmers from Rossport were sent to prison for refusing to allow Royal Dutch Shell access to their land. The Corrib gas project planned to lay a high-pressure pipeline carrying raw, unodourised natural gas through their fields - from a coastal landfall straight inland to a refinery the company had built ten kilometres away. The men were not negotiators or politicians. They were small farmers in a Gaeltacht village of about a hundred and fifty people. Their case lasted ninety-four days in custody before they were released. By the time they came home, the Rossport Five were a household name in Ireland, the village was an international byword for resistance, and a movement called Shell to Sea was already spreading along the coast.

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Rossport: The Bournes

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Around 1707, a Cromwellian named Thomas Bournes was granted Rossport and neighbouring Muingnabo by Arthur Shaen. The family settled in the townland by mid-century and became the local Protestant landlords for two centuries. By the standards of nineteenth-century Ireland the Bourn...

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Rossport: Allan Sutherland

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In 1893, an Englishman called Allan Sutherland arrived in Rossport in extravagant style. He travelled with servants, gamekeepers, dogs, guns, whiskey, wine, and fishing tackle, and he announced himself as Captain Sutherland of the Argyll Highlanders and the 5th Lancers. The shopk...

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Rossport: The Bridge That Was Never Built

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Around 1900, the Congested Districts Board considered bridging Sruth Fada Conn Bay between Rossport and Glengad. The current is fierce there and dangerous for boats. The secretary outlined two possible designs: a wooden bridge under Rossport House for £1,000, or a suspension brid...

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Rossport: Willie Corduff

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In 2007, a Rossport farmer named Willie Corduff was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize - sometimes called the Green Nobel - for his role in the opposition to the Corrib gas project. The prize honours grassroots environmental activists from each inhabited continent. Corduff w...

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Rossport: Robert Buchanan's Dog

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Robert Buchanan, a Scotsman, left his medical studies in Britain and arrived at Rossport Lodge in 1874. He never qualified as a doctor but practised informally, tending the sick of the townland with his wife. They were generous and well-loved. When their dog died, the villagers c...

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