Madam, - I wonder would it have been possible for Kevin Myers to have missed the point more completely in his Irishman's Diary of October 4th on the Rossport campaign.
The release from prison of the five men is a direct consequence of the mobilisation of public opinion right across this country, which has seen thousands of people take to the streets, sign petitions and picket Statoil and Shell stations. This show of political strength was enough to force Statoil, happily a publicly owned company, to persuade Shell to back down.
The demand that the men be freed was not a call for the law to be overthrown, but for Shell to do exactly what it did in lifting the injunction - something the company could have done at any time over the three months the men were imprisoned.
Mr Myers begins his article by wondering what could unite so many people of disparate politics on this issue. Perhaps it is the belief that the people of Ireland have a sovereign right to our own national resources and that subjecting small, isolated farming communities to an unsafe, experimental gas pipeline against their will is something worth opposing.
Lastly, like Mr Myers who laments the fact, I was not asked to sign the petition. I understand it was for figures of political or social consequence - explaining my absence, and perhaps his. - Is mise,
JUSTIN MORAN, St James Avenue, Dublin 1.