[Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland]

PEACE ACTIVIST MARGARETTA D’arcy has insisted she’ll go back to prison if necessary, in order to heighten awareness of peace issues.

The 79-year-old Aosdána member was speaking following her release from Mountjoy this morning.

She was sentenced to three months behind bars in January for refusing to stay out of unauthorised zones at Shannon Airport during protests over the use of the facility by US military planes.

[Sam Boal/Photocall]

D’Arcy is due back before the courts this summer on a separate charge— earlier this month a 24 June date was confirmed in relation to a runway protest at Shannon in September 2013.

“If that’s the way the cookie crumbles, so be it,” D’Arcy told TheJournal.ie this afternoon

If Enda Kenny wants to spend thousands of euro putting me in prison, he can go ahead.

The activist, writer and film-maker served the initial part of her sentence in Limerick, but was moved to the Dóchas Centre in Dublin’s Mountjoy last month.

There has been an active campaign over the last few months for her release, and she received separate visits from President Higgins’ wife Sabina, who is a personal friend, and Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams.

At Buswell’s Hotel for this afternoon’s press conference [Sam Boal/Photocall]

Asked about her experience in the prison system, D’Arcy said:

I had no problem going to prison. It’s part of society. Why would I have a problem joining part of society?

The activist has been undergoing treatment for cancer, and supporters expressed concern when she was first jailed about how her healthcare would be managed.

Asked about the issue today, D’Arcy commented, “I’m an old lady, and old ladies can’t go on forever”.

She said she had enjoyed using the gym to keep fit while in prison, particularly rowing and cycling machines, and said:

If they put me back in I could probably fly out over the bars.

[Sam Boal/Photocall]

She said she had no plans to take any downtime, and that she was getting to work straight away on a film project unconnected to her peace campaign.

D’Arcy held a press conference in Buswells Hotel this afternoon, immediately after her release. She’s also due to make an appearance on RTÉ’s Saturday Night Show this evening.

Read: Margaretta D’Arcy to be released from prison in ten days

More: President defends Sabina prison visit as “private and personal”