The five Mayo men jailed for contempt of court in connection with their opposition to the Corrib gas pipeline walked free from the High Court yesterday to applause and cheers from their families and friends.
Their release followed a tense court hearing, during which it seemed at first that the men would have to spend a further month in Cloverhill Prison for their refusal to purge their contempt.
Brothers Philip and Vincent McGrath, Micheál Ó Seighin, Willie Corduff and Brendan Philbin were jailed more than three months ago for breaking an injunction restraining them from interfering with work on the Shell pipeline.
Counsel for Shell Patrick Hanratty said the company now wished to have the temporary injunction lifted, as it was "effectively redundant" because Shell was not carrying out work on the line at present.
High Court president Mr Justice Joseph Finnegan discharged the injunction, but was initially reluctant to free the men because they had not purged their contempt.
However, he did agree to their release but ordered that they return to the court on October 25th when the matter of whether they should be further punished for breaking the injunction will be dealt with.
The anxious faces of the men's wives and children broke into smiles of relief when they realised their families were to be reunited.
"We didn't know for the whole time in there, right to the end, if he was going to free them. It's been such a long journey, but we're delighted now, more than delighted to have them back," Cáitlín Uí Sheighín said outside the court.
The men, flanked by more than a dozen politicians, emerged from Dublin's Four Courts into a heavy rain shower, but their jubilation was not dampened by the weather.
"I feel good, I feel delighted to be out. I missed my family - we're very close. I even missed the rain," Mr Corduff said.
Mr Ó Sheighín thanked those who campaigned for their release. "It shows that Irish people still have a basic sense of fairness . . . It's a shame it took nearly 100 days for the people to be listened to."