By Mairead Carey

Anti-war campaigner Mary Kelly, who took an ax to a U.S. military plane at Shannon Airport last year, causing $1.5 million worth of damage, has been freed by a court in Limerick. 

Kelly was convicted of criminal damage last October, but when she came before the courts this week for sentencing the mother of four was given a suspended sentence and walked away a free women. 

Kelly, 51, with an address at Fort Lorenzo in Galway, received a two-year suspended jail sentence at Limerick Circuit Court on the criminal damage charge and a further 12-month suspended sentence for entering the airport illegally.

She was also ordered to stay a mile away from Shannon Airport and to be on good behavior for four years.

Speaking after her sentence was handed down, Kelly, said she was “delighted to have my freedom.”

“I hoped for the best, but I was prepared for the worst. I’m delighted to have my freedom,” she said.

Kelly claimed that her trial was “unjust.”

“I should never have had to set foot inside any court. My trial was unjust as I wasn’t even allowed mention the war in Iraq. I shouldn’t ever have had to waste my time being here and put my family and friends through this. No one should be here,” she added.

The court had been told that Kelly hit the aircraft with an ax almost 30 times. She told the Gardai that she did so to prevent the plane being used in Iraq to kill innocent people. 

Judge Carroll Moran took into account the fact that Kelly had no previous convictions and was a person of good character.

Kelly, who is a qualified nurse, had spent many years working in a homeless shelter in London and with an environmental scheme in Colombia, the court heard.