The anti-war activist Mary Kelly has been given a two-year suspended sentence for criminal damage to a US plane at Shannon airport in January 2003.
Kelly (52), who was convicted last October of damaging the US military aircraft, was sentenced at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court this morning.
She was given a two-year suspended sentence on that charge and a further 12 month suspended sentence for entering the airport illegally. Kelly was ordered to stay a mile away from Shannon airport and to be of good behaviour for four years.
Irish Anti-War Movement
She was convicted by a jury last October on a 10 to 2 majority verdict of causing $1.5 million worth of criminal damage to the US navy jet on January 29th 2003.
The sentencing was adjourned a number of times after Kelly, a mother of four, sought adjournments to consult a new legal team and to prepare a plea of mitigation.
Groups opposing the US-led war in Iraq have organised what they describe as a "day of action" against the war, with protests taking place outside the courthouse in Limerick and in Dublin. Kelly's supporters applauded the suspended sentence in court today.
Kelly contended throughout her trial that she had "lawful excuse" for the criminal damage to the aircraft, as her actions were intended to prevent the aircraft taking civilian lives in Iraq.
The Irish Anti-War Movement said Kelly's treatment was an example of "gross hypocrisy" on the part of the Government and the courts.
"Yet the government says nothing about the criminal invasion and massacre of civilians carried out by the US war machine.
"What is a damaged hunk of steel set against the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians who are dead as a result of Bush's war. A piece of steel does not cry out in agony like the real Iraqi human beings maimed and murdered by the US war machine."
Mr Richard Boyd Barrett, chairpman of the IAWM said: "It is unbelievable that the state has set out to criminalise Mary Kelly, who hurt nobody and did nothing more than act to try and save human lives."