Shannon peace activist was previously jailed for similar actions

THE most experienced of the five Catholic Worker members, who entered Shannon Airport damaging a US military plane on Monday morning, has already spent more than 18 months in prison for similar actions on two different continents.

Ciaran O’Reilly, 42, an Irish-Australian, is something of a hero to peace activists having already shown he is willing to spend time in jail for his beliefs.

On New Year’s Day, 1991, Mr O’Reilly and three others entered Griffith’s Air Force Base in New York and began hammering on a military refuelling plane for B52 bombers. He then proceeded to the engine of a nearby B52 bomber armed with cruise missiles and caused enough damage to the engines to disable it.