For the first time since 1971 no IRA prisoners sentenced for crimes committed in this State were held in prison last night.
Senior security officers expect that yesterday's release of the last of the four Provisional IRA members sentenced for murdering Garda Frank Hand will help copper-fasten the IRA ceasefire. They hope it will also improve the chances of weapons decommissioning within the two years stipulated in the Belfast Agreement.
With the release yesterday of Patrick McPhillips, one of the three men sentenced to 40 years in 1984 for the murder of Garda Frank Hand, there are now no Provisional IRA prisoners serving sentences for offences committed in this State.
Four men who have not been convicted but are remanded in custody awaiting trial on IRA-related offences remain in prison over Christmas.
The 20 IRA men who were transferred from prisons in England over the past year all received 13-day Christmas parole.
In the North fewer than 100 prisoners will remain in the Maze over Christmas, after 170 republican and loyalist inmates were released yesterday on 10-day parole. Among them was the Shankill bomber, Sean Kelly.
Senior security sources last night emphasised that there would be no remission for people facing charges relating to the activities of dissident republican groups.
Five prisoners claiming to belong to the Continuity IRA, and another nine claiming to belong to the "Real IRA" remain incarcerated over Christmas and will not be considered for early release, according to the sources.
It is understood that information has recently come to light connecting at least one senior figure in the Continuity IRA with the Omagh bombing of August 15th.
This man, from Dundalk, has close associations with the head of the "Real IRA", who also lives in Dundalk.
As a result of the Garda intelligence on the two dissident IRA groups, the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, is understood to have decided that none of the dissidents will receive Christmas parole or early release. Senior security figures hope the final releases of the Provisional IRA prisoners - and particularly the releases of the four men sentenced for murdering Gardai Seamus Quaid and Garda Frank Hand - will put the seal on the Provisional IRA ceasefire.
While they admit that there is no immediate prospect of the IRA decommissioning any of its weapons, the sources are hopeful that they will do so within the two-year time frame. It was decided not to release one of the dissident Continuity IRA prisoners, 52-year-old Josephine Hayden, who is serving a six-year sentence in Limerick Prison for firearms offences.
Two INLA prisoners, Gary Adams and Anthony McNeill from Dundalk, who were due to finish their sentences early next year, were given full release.