Poet, Activist, Parkinson's sufferer and Granny (79) gets jailed for 6 months.

Lapin · 15-01-2014 7:00pm #1

Aosdana memeber and close friend of President Michael D. Higgins, Margaretta D'Arcy has been arrested at her home in Galway and sent to prison for six months for trespassing on the runway at Shannon Airport during an anti war demonstration.

From The Galway Advertiser.

A 79-year-old woman has been jailed for trespassing on the runway at Shannon Airport.
Galway anti-war activist Margaretta D'Arcy has had a three-month suspended sentence activated after she refused to sign a bond to uphold the law and keep away from unauthorised zones at Shannon.
Well known as a writer and anti-war camapigner, Margaretta Darcy was convicted before Ennis District Court in December, along with fellow acitvist Niall Farrell, after Judge Patrick Durkan heard they had endangered lives in blocking two flights from landing at Shannon in October of 2012.
The two members of the Galway Alliance Against War claimed they had a legal right to protest there against US Military use of Shannon.
Both received three-month prison sentences which were suspended on condition they enter into a bond to uphold the law for two years and to stay out of unauthorised zones at Shannon Airport.
However, having refused to sign the bond, Ms Darcy was arrested at her home in Woodquay in Galway today and taken to Limerick prison to serve her sentence.
Her fellow campaigners have expressed outrage at the detention of the 79-year-old Parkinson's sufferer and are calling on the Justice Minister Alan Shatter to demand her release.

This is causing a bit of a stir in Galway. Margaretta is a well known and much respected figure around town here.

Personally I think she is in the right place. Her age and illness shouldn't be used to detract from the fact that she willingly put her own and other people's lives at risk by encroaching onto an active airport runway and causing flights to be diverted.

I fully support the cause she was campaigning for but I can't condone her actions in highlighting that cause. Of course her imprisonment will draw further attention to her campaign, (which is probably her intention anyway.)

If it was a 24 year old unemployed single man going to prison for the same crime would there be as much of an outcry?

slippy wicket · 15-01-2014 7:07pm

Crazy auld bat, best place for her.

Alpha Dog 1 · 15-01-2014 7:08pm

She should really have known better at her age!

darkpagandeath · 15-01-2014 7:12pm

Yeah people on an active runway what's the worse that could happen...... Find it surprising people buying the whole I'm ill routine had no problem getting on the runway in the first place ?

Pumpkinseeds · 15-01-2014 7:16pm

Best place for her. How much money has been spent on policing these stupid bloody protests at the airport? not to mention the police hours wasted on court appearances and then the legal fees. The woman is achieving nothing, she's just indulging her own ego.

anncoates · 15-01-2014 7:18pm

You're really pulling out the stops with that title.

MagicMarker · 15-01-2014 7:19pm

Stupid gobshíte.

TheIrishGrover · 15-01-2014 7:20pm

anncoates wrote: »

You're really pulling out the stops with that title.

I thought it was the start to a joke

Peregrine · 15-01-2014 7:21pm

Lapin wrote: »

Both received three-month prison sentences which were suspended on condition they enter into a bond to uphold the law for two years and to stay out of unauthorised zones at Shannon Airport.
However, having refused to sign the bond, Ms Darcy was arrested
...
Her fellow campaigners have expressed outrage at the detention of the 79-year-old Parkinson's sufferer and are calling on the Justice Minister Alan Shatter to demand her release.

Really? A woman who trespassed into an active airfield and endangered the lives of hundreds of people and refused to agree not to trespass again?

Now that would be injustice to the rest of us..

Alun · 15-01-2014 7:24pm

Person gets jailed for 6 months.

End of story, whether she's a poet, a granny or anything else is utterly irrelevant.

4zn76tysfajdxp · 15-01-2014 7:26pm

Lapin wrote: »

This is causing a bit of a stir in Galway. Margaretta is a well known and much respected figure around town here.

Well, with the smelly crusties.

It's not racist if you're from Galway.

Menas · 15-01-2014 7:27pm

Too old and infirm to do the time?
Don't do the crime.

DwightSchrute1 · 15-01-2014 7:29pm

Delighted she is gone to prison. The fact she is an elderly, ill granny didn't stop her from jeopardising the lives of others.

minidazzler · 15-01-2014 7:30pm

Woman who broke law, got a slap on the wrist if she agreed to certain simple terms which say she won't break that particular law again, gets jailed.

She could still protest at Shannon, just not in restricted area's.

The Manganese Overlord · 15-01-2014 7:30pm

Stupid cause, stupid thing to do. And why should her being a poet have any bearing on anything?

end of the road · 15-01-2014 7:30pm

Lapin wrote: »

Aosdana memeber and close friend of President Michael D. Higgins, Margaretta D'Arcy has been arrested at her home in Galway and sent to prison for six months for trespassing on the runway at Shannon Airport during an anti war demonstration.

From The Galway Advertiser.

A 79-year-old woman has been jailed for trespassing on the runway at Shannon Airport.
Galway anti-war activist Margaretta D'Arcy has had a three-month suspended sentence activated after she refused to sign a bond to uphold the law and keep away from unauthorised zones at Shannon.
Well known as a writer and anti-war camapigner, Margaretta Darcy was convicted before Ennis District Court in December, along with fellow acitvist Niall Farrell, after Judge Patrick Durkan heard they had endangered lives in blocking two flights from landing at Shannon in October of 2012.
The two members of the Galway Alliance Against War claimed they had a legal right to protest there against US Military use of Shannon.
Both received three-month prison sentences which were suspended on condition they enter into a bond to uphold the law for two years and to stay out of unauthorised zones at Shannon Airport.
However, having refused to sign the bond, Ms Darcy was arrested at her home in Woodquay in Galway today and taken to Limerick prison to serve her sentence.
Her fellow campaigners have expressed outrage at the detention of the 79-year-old Parkinson's sufferer and are calling on the Justice Minister Alan Shatter to demand her release.

This is causing a bit of a stir in Galway. Margaretta is a well known and much respected figure around town here.

Personally I think she is in the right place. Her age and illness shouldn't be used to detract from the fact that she willingly put her own and other people's lives at risk by encroaching onto an active airport runway and causing flights to be diverted.

I fully support the cause she was campaigning for but I can't condone her actions in highlighting that cause. Of course her imprisonment will draw further attention to her campaign, (which is probably her intention anyway.)

If it was a 24 year old unemployed single man going to prison for the same crime would there be as much of an outcry?

if it was US military flights she was disrupting then good on her, anything that makes it a little difficult for the US to use any of our airports as part of a war gets the thumbs up from me, 24 year old man or 79 year old woman wouldn't matter to me

frag420 · 15-01-2014 7:34pm

Is this them??

Skid X · 15-01-2014 7:34pm

Galway Advertiser wrote:

Both received three-month prison sentences which were suspended on condition they enter into a bond to uphold the law for two years and to stay out of unauthorised zones at Shannon Airport.

However, having refused to sign the bond, Ms Darcy was arrested at her home in Woodquay in Galway today and taken to Limerick prison to serve her sentence.

So, she accepts no sanction for her crime, and refuses to say she won't do the same thing again (which would cost the Country thousands of euro, and endanger life).

No Citizen is above the Justice System. I have no sympathy for her.

My name is URL · 15-01-2014 7:35pm

It's a pity that whoever gave the go ahead for Shannon to be used to transport people for torture hasn't also been jailed. Not that the tools on here would have any issue with that sort of human rights abuse... old lady on a runway though is the devil incarnate.

laoch na mona · 15-01-2014 7:37pm

it's stupid jailing anyone for such a minor offence.

Menas · 15-01-2014 7:37pm

My name is URL wrote: »

It's a pity that whoever gave the go ahead for Shannon to be used to transport people for torture hasn't also been jailed. Not that the tools on here would have any issue with that sort of human rights abuse... old lady on a runway though is the devil incarnate.

Two wrongs never make a right.

WilyCoyote · 15-01-2014 7:40pm

Can someone take this lady by the hand and lead her through Ann Summers' doors to get something to keep her happy. This Shannon Airport gig was a cry for help.

may contain nuts batteries

mathepac · 15-01-2014 7:40pm

Poet, Activist, Parkinson's sufferer and Granny (79) gets jailed for 6 months and abused by brave, anonymous internet posters for acting on her principles.

"Romantic Ireland's dead and gone,
It's with O'Leary in the grave.

Yet they were of a different kind,
The names that stilled your childish play,
They have gone about the world like wind,
But little time had they to pray
For whom the hangman's rope was spun,
And what, God help us, could they save?
Romantic Ireland's dead and gone,
It's with O'Leary in the grave."

William Butler Yates

Chucken · 15-01-2014 7:41pm

Trigger Happy wrote: »

Two wrongs never make a right.

And if you don't stand up for something, you'll fall for anything.

A woman of principles. Fair play to her.

The Backwards Man · 15-01-2014 7:41pm

If there's one thing that literally makes me tear my hair out and set fire to my head and boil my brains in the scorching heat, it's emotive journalism.

bumper234 · 15-01-2014 7:43pm

laoch na mona wrote: »

it's stupid jailing anyone for such a minor offence.

You do realise that she put hundreds of innocent people in danger right?

Silly old cow should have got 3 years.

hfallada · 15-01-2014 7:47pm

My highest biggest issue is if a 79 year old woman can get onto a runway of an international airport more than likely a terrorist could.

returnNull · 15-01-2014 7:48pm

The Manganese Overlord wrote: »

Stupid cause, stupid thing to do. And why should her being a poet have any bearing on anything?

could lead to some interesting cell graffiti!

poetic granny wrote:

i woz ere,
ere i woz,
woz i ere,
yez i woz

end of the road · 15-01-2014 7:48pm

bumper234 wrote: »

You do realise that she put hundreds of innocent people in danger right?

not at all, US military aren't "innocent"

bumper234 wrote: »

Silly old cow should have got 3 years.

would cost to much, we can't afford it, we have to save the space for actual criminals such as murderers rapists paedophiles and so on. and she isn't a "silly old cow" she is a brave woman standing up for whats right and paying almost the ultimate price, fair play to her, a true hero

Orlaw3136 · 15-01-2014 7:48pm

She got exactly what she wanted.

And deserved.

DwightSchrute1 · 15-01-2014 7:48pm

Chucken wrote: »

And if you don't stand up for something, you'll fall for anything.

A woman of principles. Fair play to her.

oh she was only acting on her principles..well that's reason enough to go onto a runway and endanger lives

Poet, Activist, Parkinson's sufferer and Granny (79) gets jailed for 6 months.

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