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Shell's Nigerian plan for Ireland and natives of Mayo (with video) When Ken Saro-Wiwa once demanded the right of native people to rule themselves and own their own natural resources, he was doing so against the super-human powers of Shell corporation in their quest to exploit and take Nigerian resources. Similarly Shell is a major stakeholder in the Corrib gas pipeline saga of County Mayo in the west of Ireland. The mural above depicting Wiwa is from Ireland. Watch the video below for a better sense of how the Nigerian experience precedes and warns the Irish. Greek campaign to return stolen marbles, cites British theft of Irish artefacts He was just another British Empire pawn, making his moves to steal something precious for the king. Elgin, whose name has given the English language a synonym for "vandal" and "thief," had a long imperious title and birth-name not worth repeating. The only name for which he is remembered is the one associated with the near-destruction of the Parthenon, one of the great monuments of Grecian civilization and all human heritage. He wanted to help decorate the newly christened "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland," founded by Act of Union in the same year Elgin began removing the ancient statuary. A group that has been working to undo that wrong by a man whom Lord Byron called at the time "a dishonest and rapacious vandal," has expressed solidarity with the work being done to get the Gal Gréine out of a British war museum, and returned to Dublin, whence it was stolen in 1916. You can read about the Gal Gréine controversy here. Requests to return the Gal Gréine flag to Ireland A more recent case of an artefact in a UK museum – that its original owners want returned because they feel that it symbolises more for to them than it does to the museum it is currently in. British insult victims of An Gorta Mór, diplomats skip out on Famine Memorial The British did not send a diplomat to attend Ireland's otherwise well-attended Famine Memorial in Mayo, because the precedent would have put British diplomacy around the world under enormous pressure. If the British had to face the Irish genocide, they could find themselves being put on the spot of culpability all across the planet. Choosing sides between Irish and British, Jews and Palestinians The Israeli and the Irish governments are wrestling on the international stage, and it's not good for the Irish.