ANTI-WAR ACTIVIST MARGARETTA D’Arcy is serving another prison sentence for opposition to use of Shannon Airport by the US military.
D’Arcy, 80, and fellow protester Niall Farrell were both given two-week sentences and fined €100 each for an unauthorised incursion into Shannon Airport in September last year.
D’Arcy and Farrell trespassed onto the runway at Shannon Airport on the first of September last year.
D’Arcy was jailed today after refusing to sign a bond stipulating she would act lawfully and would not enter unauthorized zones at the airport again. Earlier this year D’Arcy served nine and a half weeks of a three month sentence for a similar conviction.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie, Dr John Lannon of ShannonWatch said: “Margaretta doesn’t pose a threat to Irish society. What Margarette D’Arcy is doing is highlighting things that do pose a threat to Irish society, things involving human rights abuses and war.”
We feel the same as the first time she was put in prison. It is an outrage that a peace activist should be put in prison whilst there are war planes going through Shannon airport. The response of the Irish State is to put a peace activist in prison rather than inspecting these planes.
Last month ShannonWatch made a submission to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Oversight and Submissions. In the submission it was stated that 2.4 million US troops have passed through Shannon Airport since 2002. The submission also says that the number of troops being transported through Shannon Airport has been dropping in recent years and that last year 69,840 troops were transported through the airport.
The submission includes a list of all known CIA-operated planes that landed at Shannon between 2001 and 2008.
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