Here's why the water protesters were freed from prison...

Their lawyers appealed on the basis of problems with a ‘committal warrant’. But what was the basis of the argument?

THE FOUR ANTI-WATER charge protesters jailed last month for breach of a court injunction were freed earlier this afternoon.

Bernie Hughes, Damien O’Neill, Paul Moore and Derek Byrne were jailed on 19 February for breaching a court order not to interfere with Irish Water metering work.

They were freed immediately, following a ruling by President of the High Court Nicholas Kearns.

So… Why?

Justice Kearns is set to give a full explanation of his decision on Thursday – but he said today that there were a number of errors in the committal warrant ordering the protesters’ detention in prison.

Warrants of committal are issued whenever someone is handed a jail term by the courts system.

Lawyers for the four had argued the document didn’t indicate that Justice Paul Gilligan’s ruling last month had left open the option for them to purge their contempt.

The piece of paper “should have contained a written option whereby they could come back into court and purge,” solicitor for the protesters Cahir O’Higgins told RTÉ’s Mary Wilson this evening.

Wider implications?

Asked whether today’s finding had any ramifications for other cases, he said it probably didn’t.

You can only look at each specific case on its merits – and by and large most committal warrants pertain to criminal court proceedings and not committal for contempt.

Explaining how the appeal had come about, he said that – speaking generally – solicitors would examine every warrant “to make sure that all of the T’s are crossed and the I’s are dotted.”

“Really, as a lawyer, you don’t really look at the political or moral aspects of things.

“Rather you just simply litigate to your client’s advantage in terms of a technical point or otherwise. You have to explore every possible avenue,” O’Higgins said.

Cllr. John Lyons / Twitter Cllr. John Lyons / Twitter / Twitter

Is it over?

Asked whether the current process was finally over, he said he didn’t know, and that he would be back in court on Thursday to hear Kearns’ full ruling.

“Really I’m only addressing my mind to what happened in court today and I haven’t reflected on that,” he said, adding:

I hope it is and I hope that people exercise good judgment.

Speaking earlier, Derek Byrne – who has emerged as something of a leader among protest groups involved in direct action against metering – indicated he wouldn’t be quitting his campaign.

“We’ve begun something, why would we give up now,” he told 4FM’s Niall Boylan.