Sinn Fein has welcomed a Northern Ireland Office decision to allow an IRA prisoner, Ella O'Dwyer, compassionate parole to visit her critically-ill father in Tipperary. O'Dwyer, who is serving a life sentence for conspiring to cause explosions in England in 1985, was allowed a 34-hour weekend unaccompanied release from Maghaberry Prison to visit her father.
The Sinn Fein president, Mr Pat Doherty, in welcoming the parole, said he had recently raised her case and that of other republican prisoners with the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and other Government ministers.