Should we be worried that last week 12 demonstrators spent three days in jail unnecessarily, having been wrongly denied bail by the District Court? The temptation of many might be to say "So what? They brought it on themselves." That would be profoundly wrong.
The Constitution is clear about bail. It may be refused to an accused facing "a serious offence where it is reasonably considered necessary to prevent the commission of a serious offence by that person." The liberty of the citizen and the presumption of innocence are fundamental values whose erosion the courts have been extremely reluctant to approve, and only when faced with evidence of a likelihood to abscond or to interfere with witnesses.
How is it then that on Wednesday last the High Court had to reverse a District Court refusal on Saturday and again on Wednesday to grant bail terms to 12 young people charged with public order offences arising from a Dublin march and detained in prison since the weekend? Gardaí had made no objection at the Wednesday District Court hearing to bail. All but one of the accused have addresses in the State. None has previous convictions and there is no suggestion of a desire to commit another "offence". Yet District Judge John Coughlan, citing the "serious nature of the offences" upheld Saturday's decison by District Judge James P. McConnell, to deny bail terms to 12 of 23 defendants arrested after the march.
The charges they face, ranging from drunkenness to breach of the peace and failure to comply with the instructions of a garda, have yet to be tried and the guilt or innocence of the accused is not at issue here. But the offences alleged can scarcely be described as "serious" and it would not be unusual for those convicted of such charges to face non-custodial sentences. Nor would it be unusual for defendants accused of genuinely serious crimes like murder to receive bail.
Why then the severity with regard to bail this time? Could it be that district court judges may have been affected by the climate of hysteria and demonisation of protest that was whipped up ahead of the May Day EU enlargement protests by the authorities and sections of the media?
The contrast with events in Killarney the same weekend is instructive and might perhaps suggest double standards. After drunken crowds attending a major car rally pelted gardaí with bottles and other missiles some 50 people were arrested. All those arrested were subsequently released on bail or pending the filing of charges. But what is the difference?