Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams called yesterday on the Government to intervene in the case of the so-called Rossport Five.
Mr Adams, who joined a protest outside Leinster House in support of the jailed men, said the Government had a responsibility to help secure their release. He and Sinn Féin TD Martin Ferris visited one of the men, Micheál Ó Seighin, in Cloverhill Prison.
He said the five men were not "in it for themselves", but because they believed what was being done was not in the interests of the people of Mayo or of Ireland. He said one of the core values of Sinn Féin was that natural resources should be exploited in the interests of the people.