A leading figure in the mid-1980s Provisional IRA bombing campaign in Britain, who was repatriated from jail in England at the start of the year, was released last night from Portlaoise Prison.
Mr Peter Sherry, from Lurgan, Co Armagh, who was serving a life term with a stipulation from his trial judge that he serve at least 20 years in prison, is the first of the group of repatriated IRA prisoners to be let out of Portlaoise.
Most of the remaining 30 returned prisoners are expected to be released before the end of this year.
Mr Sherry, who is in his mid-40s, was arrested with six other IRA members in a flat in Glasgow in November 1985. The group had assembled a large bomb and arms factory and were planning an extensive bombing campaign in England.
British police and the RUC discovered evidence that the group was about to travel to London to plant a bomb in the Rubens Hotel overlooking Buckingham Palace. Mr Sherry's release follows that of two of his co-conspirators, Ms Ella O'Dwyer, from Athboy, Co Meath, and Ms Martina Shanahan, from Belfast, who also received life terms at their trial in 1986.
The two women had been repatriated to prison in Northern Ireland several years ago. They were freed last Tuesday.
A small number of other Provisional IRA prisoners remain to be repatriated to Portlaoise, but it is expected that if the IRA ceasefire remains intact all will be freed within the next year.
Three prisoners were released yesterday from prisons in the North, bringing to 205 the total released under the terms of the Belfast Agreement. A loyalist prisoner, Mr John Gibson, who was given life for four sectarian murders, was released after serving 16 years in Magilligan Prison.
A Provisional IRA prisoner was released from the Maze along with a non-aligned prisoner from Maghaberry Prison. The Sentence Review Commission has received 522 applications to date.