Rosemary Nelson knew she was in danger, London-based solicitor Ms Gareth Peirce told a memorial meeting for the murdered solicitor in Dublin last night. The meeting was attended by the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, and the Attorney General, Mr David Byrne.
"She knew what she was risking. She could have stopped," Ms Peirce said. "She wasn't sackcloth and ashes. She was funny, she was witty."
Mr John McMenamin, chairman of the Bar Council, said Rosemary Nelson did not represent the rich, the successful or the famous, but chose to represent those profoundly alienated from the state structures in Northern Ireland.
"Her practice is a reminder to us lawyers that one of our functions is to give a voice to the voiceless," he said. She was the truest of lawyers because she stood for one of the fundamentals, that everyone is equal before the law.
"Many people, including the Nelson family, are deeply sceptical that the RUC is the appropriate body to investigate the murder of a woman who was routinely and repeatedly threatened with death by members of that same force," said Mr Pat O'Connor, president of the Law Society. He said that this was one of the factors which led the Law Society to call for an independent investigation into the murder of Pat Finucane, and to ensure that the investigation into Rosemary Nelson's murder was carried out to the highest possible standards.
Mr Pat Mageean, a colleague of Rosemary Nelson on the Committee for the Administration of Justice in Northern Ireland, said she was not killed because of her politics or because of her religion, but because she was good at her job.
Mr Michael Farrell, co-chairman of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, which organised the event, said: "If the security forces are not prepared to accept the role allocated to lawyers in our system, we are very little removed from a police state."
A billboard campaign demanding an independent investigation and judicial inquiry into the murder of Rosemary Nelson was launched yesterday in Belfast. A mobile advertisement toured the city bearing the words: "Mr Blair and Mr Ahern: If you don't defend human rights lawyers, who will defend human rights?"
Last night at a dinner in New York, Ms Padraigin Drinan of the Rosemary Nelson Campaign accepted an award on Ms Nelson's behalf presented by the International League of Jurists.