Ireland Frees Nine IRA Members, Citing Support for Peace Process : Europe: Protestant unionists accuse Dublin of bowing to terrorists.

The Irish government, declaring that it wishes to maintain the peace process in Northern Ireland, released nine Irish Republican Army members from its prisons Friday.

Justice Minister Nora Owen, a member of the new coalition government, also announced a seven-day holiday parole for 30 more IRA members in Ireland’s jails.

She said the government, which took office last week, is “anxious to consolidate the Northern Ireland peace process and move it forward.”

The news provoked anger among Northern Ireland Protestants loyal to British rule. They criticized Dublin for knuckling under to terrorists.

David Trimble, a loyalist member of Parliament from Northern Ireland, declared: “This is political interference in the legal system to achieve short-term political gain. It is something that happens in a banana republic, not in a civilized society.”

In London, a spokesman at the prime minister’s office said of the release: “It’s a matter for the Irish government.”

But one Conservative MP, Andrew Hunter, chairman of the Northern Ireland committee, declared: “Dublin has been gravely mistaken in going ahead with these early releases. It is handing out the wrong signals, (which) could well threaten the process of the peace movement.”

The move was welcomed by Sinn Fein, the political arm of the IRA, whose vice president, Pat Doherty, commented: “We are very happy that these prisoners and others being granted parole will be spending Christmas with their families.”

The prisoner releases were originally due to begin last month in response to the republican and unionist cease-fires. The move was delayed while Irish Justice Department officials decided that a post office robbery and a bombing last week were not the official work of the IRA.

Among those freed Friday were Aaron O’Connell, 35, and Eamon Nolan, 41, who have spent 14 years in jail for the murder of a civil servant during a bank robbery. One of the prisoners allowed parole was Thomas McMahon, serving a life sentence for the 1979 killing of Britain’s Lord Mountbatten and three others.

Patrick Mayhew, Britain’s Northern Ireland secretary, maintained that there will be no early release for terrorist prisoners in Northern Ireland. “I can guarantee that those who have been sentenced by the courts will serve their sentences according to the law,” he said.

Both IRA and unionist paramilitaries claim that there are political prisoners in jail in both Ireland and Northern Ireland.

But Mayhew said Friday, “There are no political prisoners anywhere in this country. Anyone who is in prison here in Northern Ireland is in prison because they have been convicted of criminal offenses by the independent courts.”