I honestly, truly thought that the judge was going to force this upon us and my stance was to completely reject it on the grounds it infringed on our civil liberties and rights of expression. I knew all the other activists felt exactly the same and there was a defiance within the group to stand strong on it.

Now the fact is not all were in a position to relinquish their personal liberty and go to prison on remand due to personal and family commitments but others were more than willing. What was great to see was that even the defendants that had never commented on social media in the past and had no intention of doing it in the future also opposed the idea of changing the bail conditions.

Now I can't speak for anyone bar myself and as an activist there was no way in hell I could let it go unchallenged no matter the outcome, I certainly didn't look forward to the prospect of jail but knowing I had my fellow defendants to share my potential time with eased the worry somewhat. It was a long and stressful day and unless you are one of the defendants of these trials it's probably hard to understand.

There is a weight on the shoulders of all protesters/activists throughout the country that face charges for various reasons as the state fights back against this civil uprising that they fear so much. There is a level of pressure and stress that would vary from person to person and I would like to be able to say it's water off a ducks back for me but it's not. It has caused financial problems, stresses at home and other worries but I remain as determined as ever. For others it's maybe not so bad and for others it's worse.

For the last decade or so we have seen activists before the courts with quite a lot jailed for fighting for themselves and the rest of us, some examples been, Rossport protesters, Bin Charges protesters, Irish Water protesters, Anti Austerity protesters and others. Some broke bail conditions, but were then found innocent or had no case to answer on charges that inflicted those conditions, some for breaking court injunctions but no charges have been as serious or invasive as the Jobstown protest charges. I'm sure most people agree it's an attack on legitimate effective protest and an attempt to bring in draconian authoritarian laws.

Throughout the history of our island we have seen people suffer far worse than us to try liberate our nation and gain us the very rights we have today that our government would gladly take from us and our sacrifice is pale in comparison with the exception of one of my fellow accused. A man who would have been in the last trial and would without doubt have been found innocent. A man who won Tallaght Person of The Year Award, after he got charged, for his years of hard work within the community but was tragically taken from his family, community and us as he passed away at just 37 years old. He was one of the best people you could hope to meet and he'll always be missed. Disgustingly his name was again today brought up in court as one of the defendants despite the fact he passed away over a year ago, they should be ashamed to even mention his name unless they are issuing a public apology to his family for the stress they caused them.

Today I felt was an attempt to remove a very powerful weapon in the arsenal of activists, the use of social media. Thankfully we had a win, of sorts. Yes the bail conditions weren't changed but we learned that people have no right to express an opinion on an ongoing trial. Mainstream media are masters of relaying opinion through the phrasing and language they use and spend years homing these skills of psychological manipulation through the art of Neuro Linguistic Programming but we are not so savvy, yet. If found to be expressing an opinion that can be "proved" to potentially interfere in the outcome of a trial that person can face criminal contempt charges.

With that been said not all the journalists are as smart as others and that goes for politicians also. We have been attacked and demonised by elements of both on many occasions with the latest happening only yesterday and it will be interesting to see what happens in relation to that.

Last night I prepared for my possible remand into custody by getting my wife her birthday card and our anniversary card and giving them to her early, just encase I was not there to do it on the days, it's her birthday Next Monday and our anniversary Next Thursday. She has had to put up with me and the stresses I've been under while also facing her own stresses. We've had very tough times in the last couple of years in our family but we are all now stronger than ever. They will not break us.

Finally I would like to thank all of you who have supported us through this whole process, you'll never know how much it means to us.
#JobstownNotGuilty