We have shown many films about Peak Oil and the consequences of our dependence on fossil fuels throughout our Green Screen series. However, these films have largely focused on the impacts on communities and environments abroad in distant countries. The Pipe brings the issue home with the compelling and tragic story of how the Corrib Gas Pipeline controversy has divided an Irish community and threatened the livelihoods of many who live there.

“In a remote corner of the West of Ireland sits Broadhaven Bay. It is the perfect picture postcard, where the high cliffs of Erris Head and the Stags of Broadhaven stand sentry at the mouth of the bay against the mighty Atlantic, as if protecting the delicate golden sands of Glengad beach and the tiny village of Rossport, which nestles behind the dunes. However, this peaceful tranquility belies the turmoil that lies beneath, and the unique nature of the coastline which has sustained generations of farmers and fishermen, has also delivered to Shell Oil the perfect landfall for the Corrib Gas Pipeline.

In the most dramatic clash of cultures in modern Ireland, the rights of farmers over their fields, and of fishermen to their fishing grounds, has come in direct conflict with one of the worlds most powerful oil companies. When the citizens look to their state to protect their rights, they find that the state has put Shell’s right to lay a pipeline over their own.

The Pipe is a story of a community tragically divided, and how they deal with a pipe that could bring economic prosperity or destruction of a way of life shared for generations.”

The Pipe will be screened as part of the Kilkenny Film Club Winter season
at The Set, John St
Tuesday 11th April 8pm

watch the trailer here