Law can be broken to prevent ‘greater evil’

I FOUND your editorial (‘Shell disruption — no support for protests’, September 11) amazingly one-sided for a paper that purports to be objective.

Reasonable excuse allows people to break the law to prevent a greater evil, in this case a blatant disregard for the wishes of the communities who would have to live alongside the proposed pipeline and refinery.

The justification of reasonable excuse has led Irish juries to find anti-war protesters not guilty of criminal damage, most recently the Raytheon Nine anti-war activists in Derry.

You make no mention of the violence of the gardaí, the most recent example of which hospitalised the husband of the hunger striker Maura Harrington, or how much public support you believe that violence has. You claim Shell to Sea “are not representative of the people of Mayo, or any other decent people in this country”— yet every single poll taken on the issue, Mayo-wide or national, shows the opposite is in fact true.

You also say “history is replete with examples of how tolerating lawless intimidation only breeds further dangerous and irresponsible intimidation”.

This I agree with wholeheartedly. Which is why we in the Shell to Sea campaign are determined to nip it in the bud.

Finbar Cafferkey

Cashel

Achill Island

Co Mayo