The Irish Government has authorised the early release of nine IRA prisoners from the Republic.

Three other high-risk IRA inmates from the Maze prison in Northern Ireland have also been told they can spend Christmas at home.

The move in Dublin is seen by observers as an attempt to help the Northern Ireland peace process.

Eight of the men are currently being held in the Republic's high security Portlaoise prison.

Although none of them are regarded as being a top priority prisoner, Sean Kinsella and Brendan Dowd have been serving life sentences for murder.

The Irish Justice Minister, John O'Donoghue, said he had made the order on the basis that the group would keep the peace.

But the BBC's Dublin correspondent, Leo Enright, has learned that senior sources in Ireland's secong biggest political party, Fine Gael, are deeply unhappy at the move.

They are worried about the effect it could have on the relatives of the men's victims.

One of the prisoners, Sean Kinsella, was convicted in 1974 of murdering Billy Fox, a Fine Gael member of the Senate, the upper house of the Irish Republic's Parliament.

And Brendan Dowd was regarded as a senior IRA figure in Britain during the 1970s.

His group said it was responsible for the Guildford bombings for which four other people were subsequently jailed, serving 15 years before being freed.

The announcement comes as three IRA prisoners, each a high-risk inmate serving multiple life sentences at the Maze, are being allowed home for Christmas and the New Year for the first time. They must return to jail after that.

This move is said to have dismayed many of their victims' relatives.

But Sinn Fein Vice-President Pat Doherty said the releases were "a positive step" and called on the British Government to follow suit.

However, Ulster's Democratic Unionist Party spokesman Ian Paisley Jnr said it was a "sop" to the IRA which disgusted him and showed the peace process to be a sham.

The latest releases brought to 16 the number of terrorist prisoners set free early by the Irish authorities since the start of the second IRA ceasefire in July.

A further 30 IRA prisoners are still in the high-security Portlaoise prison, 50 miles from Dublin.

They include a number recently transferred from British prisons as part of a bid to encourage the peace process.

More IRA figures are likely to be switched from Britain to Ireland before Christmas following new legislation in the Republic.

This ensures that any prisoners transferred to Ireland will serve the full sentence imposed in Britain.
 

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