By Erin Miller and Zöe Percival.

VP for Community and Citizenship, Emily Cathcart, has been charged after a special late-night sitting at Ennis District Court on Saturday night.

The charges include criminal damage to a foreign military aircraft, destruction of airport security infrastructure and trespassing on a highly restricted operational zone within an international airport.

Cathcart was arrested on Saturday morning alongside two other pro-Palestinian activists after crashing through Shannon Airport exit barriers in a Ford Transit van. They spray painted a US Navy Reserve Boeing 737.

The van was deliberately modified, chains and barriers added to the doors and windows and a hole in the roof of the van for a ladder that allowed persons to come out of the top. 

Members of the Irish Defence Forces drew their weapons briefly, and the airport closed for 30 minutes. Debris was left across the runway creating dangerous conditions for aircrafts.

The bail hearing on Sunday lasted 75 minutes. Judge Marie Keane granted legal aid to the three arrested. They remained in custody with consent to bail on the conditions that “they stay out of County Clare, do not enter any other airport within the state, sign on at their local Garda stations, and do not engage in any other protests or airports.”

They were remanded to Limerick Prison for three nights. In a second bail hearing this morning, Cathcart’s father, Jeffrey Cathcart provided an independent sureties of €10,000.

She is expected to be released from Limerick Prison today, with her new court date set for the 17th of December in Ennis Courthouse.

Pro-Palestine Instagram page ‘Pal_Action_Eire’ posted to their story encouraging people to attend Limerick Prison to see their release. They have also nicknamed them the ‘Boeing 3’.

Sources close to the Student Union told The Bulletin that it is unknown if Cathcart will resume her position at DCU.

Image Credits: DCU SU