Seven IRA prisoners are transferred to Portlaoise

Seven IRA prisoners, some of whom are serving 35-year sentences, were transferred yesterday from prisons in England to Portlaoise prison.

John Crawley, a former US marine; Gerard Hanratty, who had been living in north inner Dublin; Eoin Morrow, Wolfe Tone Terrace, Dundalk; Francis Rafferty, from west Belfast but living in Dublin; and Donal Gannon, St Joseph's Place, Dublin, were sentenced to 35 years' imprisonment last July for conspiring to cause explosions and are not due for release until 2019.

The other two are Liam O Duibhir, an IRA member imprisoned after being arrested with another IRA man as they went to collect explosives from caves at Newgale, Pembrokeshire, and Peter Sherry, from Dungannon, Co Tyrone, who is serving life for conspiring to bomb British holiday resorts and for possessing explosives.

The transfer follows amendments to Irish legislation last November to ensure that prisoners transferred to the Republic serve out the sentence imposed by the country in which they were sentenced.

The Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, said the transfers could be seen as part of a sequence of 10 earlier transfers in the context of the European Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons. It also had regard to established Government policy that whenever possible, prisoners should be permitted to serve their sentences close to their families.

The vice-president of Sinn Fein, Mr Pat Doherty, welcomed the move and called for the speedy transfer of those still held in England, particularly those who have already served 23 years.