Former Loyalist prisoner and Progressive Unionist Assemblyman, David Ervine, has defended the Good Friday Agreement's prisoner release scheme against criticism from British Conservative MP, Andrew Hunter. The East Belfast MLA, who was sentenced to 11 years in the Maze Jail in 1975 for transporting a bomb in Belfast in a stolen car, said: "You get the impression that Andrew could never be happy. There are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people who are alive that might be dead, were it not for changing circumstances in Northern Ireland. Next week for the first time in my lifetime, there will be no political prisoners in Northern Ireland. Now that has got to be a watershed."
Mr Ervine said he understood the difficulties some people had with the scheme, but he argued it was for the greater good, helping to create a democratic society in Northern Ireland and a better future for subsequent generations.
The British Conservative MP, Andrew Hunter, earlier criticised the early prisoner release scheme set up under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. Mr Hunter said the scheme should be assessed in the context of progress on decommissioning and ongoing violence. Mr Hunter, who chairs his party's Northern Ireland Committee, made his comments ahead of the release next week of James McArdle, who was convicted of the London Docklands bomb in which two people were killed, and of the Loyalist, Michael Stone, who killed three people in a gun and grenade attack on a funeral in March 1988.
James McArdle has served two years of a 25-year sentence, for his part in the Docklands bombing, which marked the end of the IRA's ceasefire at the time. Two people were killed in the attack, and 40 others injured. The 1000-lb bomb devastated the area around Canary Wharf. The court was told that McArdle drove a lorry containing part of the bomb from Northern Ireland to Scotland, using the Belfast to Stranraer ferry, and spent two days driving south to Barking in Essex. A washing machine timer was attached to the bomb, which was driven by the IRA member to South Quay on the Isle of Dogs. The explosion killed 29-year-old newsagent, Inan Ul-haq Bashir, and his colleague, 33-year-old John Jeffries.
Leading Loyalist, Michael Stone, shot and killed three mourners during a gun and grenade attack in Milltown cemetery on March 16 1988, as thousands packed into Milltown cemetery to attend the funerals of three IRA members who had themselves been shot dead by British SAS forces in Gibraltar. Stone was also convicted of the murders of three other Catholics, milkman Paddy Brady in Belfast, joiner Kevin McPolin in Lisburn and bread-server Dermot Hackett, near Omagh.
Speaking at Stone's trial, the presiding judge recommended Stone serve a minimum of 30 years, but tomorrow morning he will walk free from the Maze prison under the terms of the prisoner release programme contained in the GFA.
