MORE THAN 50 people held a candlelit vigil outside Mountjoy Women’s Prison last night in protest at the jailing of a 65-year-old woman who refused to allow ESB and Eirgrid on to her land to erect a power line.
Teresa Treacy was jailed on September 13th following a High Court ruling that found she was in contempt for refusing to obey orders allowing the ESB and Eirgrid workers access to her land to erect the line. The court directed that Ms Treacy remain in prison until she purges her contempt.
Her next-door neighbour and a member of the Teresa Treacy Support Group, Roseanne Tyrrell, said last night she had never protested in her life before, but felt someone had to stand up for Ms Treacy. “Why is she in prison when all these financial big-wigs that left us all on our knees are flying away free?” she asked.
She urged people to write letters of support to Ms Treacy in prison and to contact politicians.
Cormac Lally, a member of the group, said: “This is a woman who has worked her whole life, saved up her money and bought a little piece of land which she could retire to and see out her end of days.” He called for the ESB to apply to the court for Ms Treacy’s release and for it to suspend work on her land to allow negotiations.
Many of those who attended yesterday’s protest did not know Ms Treacy personally but wanted to lend their support.
Mary Murphy from Dublin said she had attended the vigil having followed the story in recent weeks: “We talk about democracy and we criticise Syria and Bahrain, and yet a woman of that age could be put into prison until she bows to their will, and it’s on her own land . . . it’s kind of unbelievable.”
Actor Rachel Pilkington, who also attended, termed the jailing a “shameful act of injustice”.