Environmentalists camped at the Glen of the Downs in Co Wicklow are due in the High Court today for a judicial review of Wicklow County Council's road-widening plans. They have been living in the glen since May 1997.
In January 1998 when the council began removing 1,700 trees to make way for the scheme, the environmentalists gave an undertaking not to increase the size of their camp and to refrain from further trespass at the glen.
In return Wicklow County Council agreed to refrain from cutting down any more trees or attempting to remove the environmentalists pending the hearing of the judicial review.
While they are reluctant to discuss their case against the council the eco-warriors, or "vigil keepers", as they prefer to be known, are understood to be pinning their hopes on European habitat directives which forbid the creation of roads through areas of outstanding natural beauty.
Wicklow County Council is expected to argue that the Minister for the Environment has the power to deviate from the habitat directive in special circumstances. The route is part of the Irish Euro-route corridor between Larne and Rosslare.
The road-widening scheme will cost £18.5 million. Some of the original campaigners have moved on to new environmental battles, keeping a vigil over trees at Santry Woods in north Co Dublin or east Cork where they hope to stop the ESB from erecting pylons on Great Island.