Madam, - It's heartening to know we're so flush with Garda numbers and police resources that members of the force could be detached from patrolling the violence-ridden and drug-sodden streets of Dublin to apprehend two young students enjoying a gentle dalliance on a late summer's night, on the busy eve of the All-Ireland hurling final, for the offence of trespass in the middle of the empty grounds of Croke Park.
Your report of the dismissal of this charge and the unconditional discharge of the two accused (The Irish Times, May 21st) ends what must rank as one of the most fatuous and unnecessary legal contortions in decades.
Since last September, the time of the court, the attention of the Director of Public Prosecutions, the report-writing and discussions of divers members of the Garda Síochána, as well as the searching and researching of records, case-law and statutes by a learned judge have occupied the precious and expensive time of our legal machinery - to say nothing of the tension and distress suffered by the two young people in the centre of this ridiculous muddle.
These two, having at once pleaded guilty when charged, offered to donate €1,000 to Father Peter McVerry's splendid charitable work. The next day the DPP intimated that no crime may have been commited - a view which he seems to have altered upon further reading of the case, in which the Garda had referred to a "state of undress" on the young lady's part.
What that may have to do with the arcane legalities of trespass law is mind-boggling. How arcane can you get? The judge involved insisted in teasing out the possible ramifications of the matter lest a new and questionable precedent might emerge, as the young people had already pleaded guilty.
The happy closure came, as you report, with the two students' unconditional discharge. With the generosity of youth, they renewed the promise of their now unrequired donation to Father McVerry.
May I now suggest that this sum be matched by like donations from the Garda Síochána, the DPP, and the GAA?
So shines a good deed in a naughty world. - Yours, etc.,
DAVID GRANT,
Mount Pleasant,
Waterford.