Ireland Will Release 7 IRA Prisoners Early
Seven Irish Republican Army prisoners will be released early in recognition of the IRA’s continuing cease-fire, the Irish government said Tuesday.
The releases Thursday from Ireland’s top-security Portlaoise Prison would reduce the population of IRA members imprisoned in the Irish Republic to about 35. Dublin officials previously released 14 IRA inmates.
Five of the men to be freed were convicted of possessing weapons, the other two of armed robbery. Their original release dates ranged from April, 1996, to January, 1997.
Justice Minister Nora Owen said the seven had been “specially selected” to make “a significant contribution to maintaining the peace process.”
Sinn Fein, the IRA-allied political party, welcomed the gesture and demanded that Britain match it by starting to release more than 300 IRA members it holds behind bars.
The IRA in September stopped its 24-year campaign against British rule of Northern Ireland so that Sinn Fein could enter negotiations with Britain and pro-British parties. Loyalist gunmen rooted in the province’s Protestant majority called their own truce in mid-October.
About 400 British troops were withdrawn to England last month. Another battalion is expected to be flown out after Easter.
Troops were deployed in 1969 to prevent rioting but were soon drawn into conflict with a newly formed “provisional” IRA.
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