Killers of Gardai get early release

THREE MEN convicted of the IRA murders of two Irish police officers were freed early from their sentences yesterday under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.

Thomas Eccles and Brian McShane, serving 40 years for murdering Frank Hand during a post-office raid in Co Meath in August 1984, left Portlaise Prison near Dublin with Peter Rogers, of west Belfast, who has served 18 years of a 40-year sentence for the murder of Detective Garda Seamus Quaid. A fourth man, Patrick McPhillips, is expected to leave today.

The early releases drew criticism from garda representatives and relatives of the murdered men. Eccles, McPhillips and McShane were all sentenced to death for shooting Mr Hand, but the sentence was commuted to 40 years each.

These men have served less than half their sentences. Penalties in the Irish Republic are in normal times harsher than those for police killers in Northern Ireland, where life terms served tend to be nearer 14 years.

The releases increase pressure on the IRA to fulfil its commitment to weapons decommissioning. Bertie Ahern, the Taoiseach, said the families of the gardai had to be treated with sensitivity. He expected the paramilitaries to "observe all their commitments" under the agreement.

The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors said freeing the prisoners early effectively meant lifting the protection given to what was an unarmed force by the government through its normal minimum 40-year sentence

Angela Quaid-Sheehan, widow of Garda Seamus Quaid, said: "We are numbed by the whole thing. I cannot understand why the rush is to let them out now when the IRA says there is going to be no decommissioning... Why should the murderers of gardai be released now when there isn't one gun handed over [of weapons]?"

The family of Garda Hand declined to comment, telling Irish media simply: "There is no point in the family issuing a statement when the needs of law-abiding people are ignored."

The Irish Justice Minister, John O'Donoghue, last week wrote privately to the families of the murdered gardai, advising them that the men's releases were imminent.

Michael Kirby, vice-president of the Garda Representative Association, compared the act of killing an officer of the force to an act of treason. He said: "We would have thought the releases would have been the last thing to be considered."

Yesterday's releases coincided with the freeing of the IRA's commander of female prisoners from Maghaberry jail in Northern Ireland. Geraldine Ferrity, 27, who served eight years of a life sentence for the murder of Ulster Defence Regiment sergeant Albert Cooper in 1990, was the last of the IRA's female prisoners to be released under the terms of the agreement.