Five men from Derry were among the nine prisoners released from Portlaoise Prison last night. They were all sentenced to six years on firearms and possession of ammunition charges in October 1996 by the Special Criminal Court, whose legality was then challenged after a controversy concerning one of the judges.
They are Hugh Wilkinson (45), from Dunmore Gardens; Paul Murray (25), from College Glen; Bernard O'Hagan (36), from Hatmore Park; Patrick Kavanagh (34), from Chamberlain Street; and Patrick Gerard McCartney (46), from Glenowen Park.
The month after being sentenced, the five Derry men were in the group of 16 prisoners freed from jail on the orders of the then minister for justice, Mrs Nora Owen, and then rearrested and charged again.
This followed the controversy after Judge Dominic Lynch, who had asked to be relieved from his duties in the Special Criminal Court, had his request allowed. However, the judge was not told his membership of the court had been terminated and he continued to sit.
High Court proceedings were taken claiming the prisoners' detention was unlawful. The court found they were lawfully detained and this was upheld by the Supreme Court on appeal.
The five men had each faced a number of charges, including possession of two assault rifles at Ballygorman, Malin, Co Donegal, in October 1996. All were due to be released in 2001. They were given holiday parole last Christmas.
The other prisoners released were Noel Magee, of Leggs, Co Fermanagh, with an address at Ballyshannon, Co Donegal; Anthony Heaney of Castledawson, Co Derry, with an address at Crievesmith, Letterkenny, Co Donegal; a Belfast man, Christopher O'Donnell, of Glenmore Park, Murihevnamor, Dundalk; and Patrick Morgan, of Clondalkin, Co Dublin.
Magee was jailed for 111/2 years at the Special Criminal Court in November 1995 for the attempted murder of Mr William Eric Glass, a dog warden and part-time UDR soldier, at a farmyard at Scardans, Belleek, Co Fermanagh, on February 5th, 1992. During the incident an IRA man was shot dead. Magee, who was then 36, was also convicted on related firearms charges arising out of the same incident.
His conviction arose out of an incident in the farmyard of Mr Patrick Monaghan at Scardans in 1992. Four armed men occupied Mr Monaghan's farmhouse on the night of February 3rd, 1992. Two days later Mr Glass received a phone call claiming a child had been bitten by a dog at the farm and asking for assistance.
The court had heard Mr Glass drove to the farm carrying a loaded automatic pistol issued to him by the UDR. When he arrived a masked man ran to his van and fired a shot through the vehicle's front window. Mr Glass also fired some shots. The body of a man, Mr Joseph McManus, of Sligo, was later found in the farmyard. Mr Glass was hit eight times in the legs.
Heaney (42) was sentenced to 15 years by the Special Criminal Court after he was convicted of having four primed mortars in Co Donegal in December 1993.
The Mark 16 horizontal mortars were found under a Christmas tree in the back of an estate car parked at McCarry's Hotel car-park in Letterkenny. The court was told the mortars had Semtex warheads, were armour-piercing and could be fired horizontally at vehicles.
Heaney, then 38, pleaded not guilty. He also denied possession or control of the explosives for an unlawful object on the same date.
Heaney was also given holiday parole last Christmas. He was due for release in 2005.
In 1996 Heaney and another man lost a constitutional challenge on the right to silence arising out of other charges in 1990.
O'Donnell (then 34) was jailed for seven years by the Special Criminal Court in July 1993 after a four-day trial. He was convicted of possession of five detonators in Dundalk in July 1992.
He had denied having the detonators and said he did not know that a package containing them was in a jacket he was wearing when he was arrested by gardai.
O'Donnell said he had found the jacket in the back of a car and had put it on because it was getting cold.
Morgan was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment on November 20th, 1997, on charges of possession of firearms. He was due to be released next year.