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Niall Carson/PA Wire
Margaretta D'Arcy and Niall Farrell attempt to block the runway of Shannon Airport in September last year
# Protest
80-year-old activist Margaretta D'Arcy given two week sentence in court for Shannon protest
D’Arcy was ordered to sign a bond promising not to trespass at Shannon Airport – but she may not sign it.
ANTI-WAR ACTIVIST MARGARETTA D’Arcy has been given a 2 week suspended sentence for entering part of Shannon Airport which is closed to the public.
D’Arcy, who is 80, was sentenced at Ennis District Court yesterday. Co-accused Niall Farrell of Maree, Oranmore, in Galway was also given a suspended sentence for unauthorised entry at Shannon in September last year.
The judge ordered both Farrell and D’Arcy to sign a bond promising not to trespass at the airport again – however RTE News reports that D’Arcy said she will not sign the bond.
She and Farrell had attempted to block the runway at Shannon Airport in protest at the use of the airport by US military since the Iraq War, and also against western intervention in Syria.
D’Arcy, of Woodquay in Galway, was accompanied by Nobel prize winner Mairead Corrigan Maguire at the court yesterday. Clare Daly TD was also in attendance outside the court.
D’arcy spent time in Mountjoy Prison earlier this year after being sentenced to three months behind bars in January for refusing to stay out of the unauthorised zones at Shannon Airport.
The writer, who is a member of Aosdána, has been treated for cancer in recent months.
Speaking at the time of her release last year, D’Arcy was sanguine about her imprisonment and said she would continue to her anti-war protests.
“If Enda Kenny wants to spend thousands of euro putting me in prison, he can go ahead,” she said.
