Often these people want their story told, as if that might offer relief. Sometimes it does, and the individual is paroled from their burden. Other times, it makes no difference; the sentence continues for the rest of their life, impinging to various degrees on capacity to move on and find some peace.

The fallout from the Corrib gas dispute is going to be with some local people for a long time to come. Nobody is saying it loudly, but the cancellation of another national day of action last Friday signals the beginning of the end of the dispute.

More violence would have ensued, so the organisers wisely cancelled. But violence is now all that makes the story news. A group of 100 or so local people protesting peacefully outside a construction site in northwest Mayo is no longer news, nor does it have the capacity to mobilise support among the greater public. The game is up, whether or not fairness has been served.

There is probably no expert authority in the world which could convince the committed local protesters that Shell's operation is safe. They're beyond that now, blinded by a sense of injustice, thrust into the lifer's zone where conspiracy reigns.

Five of them spent 94 days in jail because of their fears.

Six years of protest has solidified fear beyond anything reason can offer, and now interprets any compromise as failure.

The Rossport men were jailed because they feared untreated gas piped near their homes. Shell has agreed to reroute the gas, but that won't do. Only total victory, driving Shell into the sea, will suffice.

In the current environment, that won't happen.

There is some merit to the sense of grievance felt among the locals. Trust has completely broken down. Shell is a corporate thug, which behaved appallingly when it came to Erris. It says it has learned the error of its ways, but serious vigilance will be required to ensure the company complies with the law.

Policing Shell is the job of government, but trust is in serious deficit there. Three weeks ago, the minister for justice inferred that locals were duped into violence by Sinn Fein. There is absolutely no evidence that Sinn Fein had anything to do with the violence, and insulting local people in pursuit of a cheap political soundbite deepens mistrust.

Sections of the media, including one notorious clown, have also determined that the protestors should be painted as thugs. Just because they're paranoid, it doesn't mean some people aren't out to get them.

Other agendas abound.

Protestors from outside Erris are opposed to Shell for political or environmental reasons. Some are enraged that big business is plundering national resources for a song.

Others believe Shell is an evil exemplar of globalisation.

These agendas are legitimate, and worthy of debate, but the wider public appears uninterested. In an election year, the Corrib gas project, heavy with primal and historic baggage, doesn't even register on the political agenda.

When the outside protestors, many of them students, travel hundreds of miles to northwest Mayo, they are unlikely to be satisfied by a brief, peaceful vigil, while the enemy drives by. The violence was inevitable. Some involved may well have been sons and daughters of people who vote for the likes of Michael McDowell. But there would be no political advantage in singling them out.

Without the jailings, this would all have ended long ago.

And soon, when it is all over, and the other agendas dissipate, the local people will be left with their fears. The bulk of evidence suggests the fears are not justified. But fuelled by a sense of grievance, those fears will persist for a long time to come. Some among them will join the ranks of lifers, burdened by a perceived injustice, from here on in.