Profiles . . .
James Monaghan
In July 1976, Monaghan and three others escaped from their cell at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin following an explosion at the building.
That year, he began a prison sentence, as he described it, "as a result of my participation in the war against British occupation of part of Ireland". He was released in 1985.
After his release he joined Sinn Féin and became a senior member. He was the director of education for five years.
Martin John McCauley
McCauley was born in Lurgan, Co Armagh, in December 1962. He had featured in one of the more dramatic and tragic incidents of the Troubles.
In winter 1982, with another youngster, he was ambushed by the security forces who were monitoring an arms cache in an isolated farmyard near Lurgan.
The other youth, Michael Tighe (17), was shot dead.
The event was captured on tape, but efforts to acquire it during the subsequent "Stalker Inquiry" to see if the two youngsters were given any warning turned out to be unsuccessful. He had served time in prison for Republican activities.
Niall Connolly
Connolly is from south Dublin. He was born in 1965 and is the youngest of the three.
He is the only one with fluent Spanish. He had been a development aid worker in Latin America. He had no previous convictions.
A member of a well-known Dublin family and brother of prominent investigative journalist Frank Connolly, he was the Sinn Féin representative in Cuba,although this was initially denied by the party.