Big Plane Small Axe - the mistrial of Mary Kelly
The mis-trials of Mary Kelly. In January 2003 the American build-up for the attack on Iraq was intensifying daily. Shannon Airport had become a refuelling stopover for the war. Mary Kelly, newly returned from hair-raising experiences as a volunteer nurse in Palestine, threw herself into the anti-war movement, but soon came to believe it was not enough. ’I felt I had to do something else, and shatter through their lies. I just did not want those planes going there, so I attacked one of them. It was like chopping extremely hard wood.’ She was charged with criminal damage to a US Navy aircraft without lawful excuse, and faced a possible ten years in jail. The film follows her ordeal through three successive trials, in Kilrush and Ennis, and finally her sentencing at Limerick. Filmed and Produced by Margaretta D'Arcy A Women in Media and Entertainment Production