Judge Patrick Duncan found the pair guilty of entering a restricted area of the airport on July 22 last year, and imposed a fine of €2,000 each, with three months to pay, and the possibility of 30 days in prison if the fines are not paid.
Outside of court, Deputy Wallace said, however, that “I wouldn’t pay that fine to save my life.”
Deputy Daly concurred, and said “we have no intention of paying a financial contribution to a State which allows this behaviour to continue (at Shannon)”.
Mr. Wallace added: “I don’t believe that we broke the law by going over the fence and the Nuremberg principles support that. They state that citizens have an obligation to break domestic law in order to protect justice and humanity.
“We felt that it was our obligation to do our utmost to ensure that international law is upheld. The fact that we are legislators put an extra burden of responsibility on us. Even more so than ordinary citizens.