The families and public representatives of five men who were jailed yesterday for breaching a court order to stop obstructing work on the Shell Corrib gas pipeline have reacted with anger to their imprisonment.
The five north Mayo men, James Brendan Philbin, brothers Philip and Vincent McGrath, Willie Corduff and Micheál Ó Seighin, last night spent their first night of an indefinite period in prison for contempt, and three of the five are due in court again tomorrow over a separate legal action taken by Shell.
The five will remain in prison until they purge their contempt before the High Court.
A number of other local people are also facing imprisonment. They are due in court tomorrow for allegedly breaching the same order, granted on April 4th.
One of those, Bríd McGarry, told the court yesterday she believed she had no alternative but to go to jail as the pipeline placed the community at "unprecedented risk".
Giving his decision, Mr Justice John McMenamin said he had no alternative but to make the orders sought by Shell for the men's committal. It was most unfortunate that matters had reached this stage. Nothing would be resolved by people taking the law into their own hands.
Minister for Natural Resources Noel Dempsey has said it would not be "prudent" for him to interfere in yesterday's High Court ruling. He is expected to come under pressure in the Dáil today when several Mayo TDs seek to have the issue raised on the adjournment debate.
Three Mayo TDs - Michael Ring (FG), Dr Jerry Cowley (Ind) and Beverley Flynn (Ind) - attended a meeting hosted by the Council for the West in Leinster House last night, along with Shell E&P Ireland.
Independent TD Joe Higgins, Sinn Féin's agriculture spokesman Martin Ferris and Labour energy spokesman Tommy Broughan have also called on the Minister to take action.
Council for the West chairman Sean Hannick said while his organisation supported the €900 million Corrib gas project he was very unhappy with yesterday's development. "The law had to be upheld, but sending people to prison is not going to do any good."
The five, who represented themselves, explained their health and safety concerns over the high-pressure onshore pipeline linking the Corrib gas field to an onshore terminal to Justice McMenamin.
Supporters of the five men held a protest outside Mountjoy prison last night. "We're 100 per cent behind them - if there was a percentage higher than that we'd be there," said Terry Clancy, spokesman for environmental group Shell To Sea which is campaigning against the pipeline.
Mary Corduff, wife of farmer Willie Corduff, said that she was "devastated".
"We are dealing with a multinational company that wants to make profit. Our lives don't matter."
Caitlin Ní Sheighin said she was very proud of her husband for "standing up for what he believes is right".