Controversial Galway peace activist Niall Farrell will “surrender himself” to gardaí at the Liam Mellows statue in Eyre Square, at 1.30pm on Friday.
Niall Farrell of the Galway Alliance Against War is to be arrested and sent to Limerick Prison for his involvement in a peace protest on the runway at Shannon Airport with Margaretta D’Arcy last September.
In June they were found guilty of having “interfered with the proper use” of Shannon Airport and given a two week suspended sentence and what approximates to a €100 fine. Both refused to pay the fine or sign a so-called peace bond.
Ms D’Arcy (80 ) has since been imprisoned for her failure to comply with the Ennis District Court’s ruling. The gardaí have been in contact with Mr Farrell (61 ) and he has agreed to surrender himself at the Liam Mellows statue following a GAAW peace event which takes place at Friday at 1pm.
“The holding of a peace event before Mellows’ statue prior to my arrest is fitting in this the centenary year of the imperialist bloodbath that was World War I,” Mr Farrell said in a statement issued today. “The 1916 Easter Rising, led by Mellows in Galway, was an insurrection against both British rule and Irish involvement in an imperialist war.
“For the past 13 years Ireland has been involved in a series of illegal imperialist conflicts via Shannon and Irish airspace. In addition, our own Defence Forces are now involved in the occupation of Afghanistan and Mali.
“Through Irish complicity in these wars, we, the Irish people have the blood of at least one million innocent people on our hands and have become accessories to ‘extraordinary rendition’; in other words to torture and kidnapping. Therefore in this context, Margaretta D’Arcy, Clare Daly, Mick Wallace and I have not broken any laws, but have attempted to uphold national and international law.”
