We are all indebted to the Mayo gas protesters

YOUR editorial (April 28) began well, but quickly deteriorated into the usual inaccurate and criminalising caricature of the protest by people against Shell in Co Mayo.

Unspecified shady motives are alluded to once again and the gardaí, whose behaviour has been shocking in many instances, are made out to be caught in the middle when in fact they have been Shell’s enforcers in the area.

As with the jailing of the Rossport Five before them, the imprisonment of Niall Harnett and Pat O’Donnell is a national scandal – both men have been incarcerated as a consequence of a legal process that should cause us to hang our heads in collective shame.