The last five Provisional IRA prisoners in the Republic are being held in Castlerea low-security jail in Roscommon. They will be the only Provisionals to remain in prison in either the UK or the Republic after this week. Four are serving terms for manslaughter and the fifth on a related conspiracy charge over the killing of Det Garda Jerry McCabe in Adare, Co Limerick, in 1996.
Sinn Fein has described the continued detention of the five as a rejection of the terms of the Belfast Agreement by the Government. All others, with loyalists and some splinter republicans, will be released from UK prisons this week under the terms of the Belfast Agreement.
The decision in June by the IRA to allow its arms dumps to be inspected contributed to the decision by the British government to release all its prisoners.
However, the Government indicated to Sinn Fein during the negotiating stages of the Belfast Agreement that the men convicted of killing Det Garda McCabe would not benefit from the agreement's early-release scheme.
The Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, said the five would serve a "significant" term.
Portlaoise Prison, which held up to 200 republicans at one stage, now holds just over 20 political prisoners on wings €2 and €3. Most are associated with the "Real IRA" group which was responsible for the Omagh bombing atrocity in August 1998 and for a number of mortar and other bomb attacks in Northern Ireland and two disruptive attacks in London in the past six months.
The five Provisional IRA prisoners held in Castlerea are Kevin Walsh, Pearse McCauley, Michael O'Neill, Jeremiah Sheedy and John Quinn, who is in prison on a conspiracy charge. The last of the Provisional IRA prisoners in Portlaoise, including Gerard Hanratty, its last prison "OC" or officer commanding in the Republic's prison system, were released in May.
There has been a number of other releases of members of splinter republican groups in the past few weeks. Three members of the Continuity IRA, including the last republican woman prisoner, Josephine Hayden, were released after completing sentences for firearms and explosives offences. Only a small number of members of this group remain in prison on either side of the Border.
Most republicans in prison are associated with the anti-agreement "Real IRA". There are 17 in Portlaoise, three in high-security English prisons and three in Maghaberry prison in Northern Ireland.
There are a number of loose ends in respect of extradition and outstanding charges against Provisional republicans. At this year's Sinn Fein Ardfheis, the party accused the Government of failing in its obligations under the agreement and of creating bad faith through its arrests of Brendan McFarlane, Angelo Fusco and Paul Dingus Magee, all from Belfast.
McFarlane, who is a prominent supporter of the Sinn Fein leadership and the peace process, was arrested by gardai last year in Dundalk. He is still the subject of an arrest warrant arising from the kidnapping of the supermarket executive, Mr Don Tidey, in December 1983. A young soldier, Pte Patrick Kelly, and a trainee garda, Gary Sheehan, were shot dead by the IRA kidnappers as Mr Tidey was freed.
Magee and Fusco are still the subject of outstanding extradition warrants for offences committed in Northern Ireland and Britain. All three have served lengthy terms of imprison since the warrants against them were issued and it is expected they will not spend time in prison once the court proceedings are settled.
Prisoners have been at the centre of militant republicanism. Republicans are still discussing issues such as the hunger-strikes and the exhumation of republicans executed in the earlier part of the last century.
Large crowds turned up on the Falls Road earlier this year for the funeral of Tom McWilliams who was disinterred from the outer perimeter of Crumlin Road Prison where he was hanged during the second World War for killing a policeman.