THREE republican prisoners were released on parole yesterday after serving 21 years of their life sentences in English prisons.
Mr Stephen Nordone (39) from Co Louth, Mr Noel Gibson (42), from Co Laois and Mr Sean Kinsella (48), from Co Fermanagh, were all released on licence from Full Sutton prison, in north Yorkshire yesterday morning.
A British Home Office spokesman refused to comment on the question of why the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Taylor's recommendation in July 1995 that the three men should be released within months had not been acted on before.
"The parole board directed that these three men should be released and they now have been," the Home Office spokesman said.
The three men, along with their co accused Brendan Dowd and Paul Norney, were jailed for life at Manchester Crown Court in 1976 after being found guilty of charges including conspiracy to murder, cause explosions and possession of arms.
The trial judge, Mr Justice Cantely, had described the five men as "dedicated and utterly callous terrorists".
Although the Fine Gael spokesman on justice, Senator Dan Neville, welcomed the men's release, he pointed out that Dowd and Norney were still in prison and did not have a parole date.
An application for parole by Dowd was rejected last year because he had not addressed his "offending behaviour" and was informed by the board that he would not be eligible for another hearing until 1997 at the earliest.
Norney's application for parole was refused because he failed to attend his hearing last year. However, his supporters point out that he had just been transferred to a jail in Northern Ireland and the Home Office failed to inform him of the date.
Mr Pat McGeown, the Sinn Fein spokesman on prison issues, said the three men were upset that, following a new Home Office ruling, they now had to live in England for a further three years to be supervised by the probation service.
"This wholly unnecessary departure will effectively prolong the forced exile of the three in England."