McCabe case convicts qualify for release
If Mr O’Brien read the Good Friday Agreement, and clearly he did not, he would know the men are qualifying prisoners.
If he had read the Supreme Court judgment in its entirety, instead of selectively quoting from it, he would have noticed that the court found that the men were qualifying prisoners, but that the Government was not legally obliged to release them under the agreement.
In other words, no law obliges the Government to implement the agreement. His contention that because the IRA initially stated the men were not involved, and thus do not qualify, is also false and irrelevant in the context of the agreement.
The agreement says nothing about claims of responsibility, but is quite explicit in its definitions. Prisoners must be members of an organisation recognised as being on ceasefire, as the Castlerea Four are, and they must have been convicted for offences similar to scheduled offences in the Six Counties, again as they were.
As a republican, there are elements of the agreement I do not like, but I work for its full implementation, good and bad, because it is our best chance for peace.
If the Government of this State is not willing to do the same, I have little interest in continuing.
Justin Moran,
27, St James Avenue,
Ballybough,
Dublin 3.
