Five members of the "Real IRA" were sentenced yesterday to jail terms of 16 to 22 years for plotting three bomb attacks in Britain in 2001.
"They are abnormal crimes designed as threats to the country as a whole and must call for long sentences," said Judge Richard Gibbs as he handed down the sentences in a London courtroom.
"Beliefs and politics, if any, which provide the motive are irrelevant," Judge Gibbs said, adding it was a miracle that no one died in the attacks which left several people injured.
Three of the five - brothers Robert Hulme (23) and Aidan Hulme (25), from Dundalk, and Noel Maguire (34), from Co Fermanagh - were convicted on Tuesday of conspiracy for the car bomb attacks, the last of their kind in the UK outside Northern Ireland.
The other two accused, James McCormack (35) from Co Louth, and John Hannan (19), from Newtown Butler, Co Fermanagh, had already admitted the charges against them.
The first of the attacks was on the BBC television centre in White City, west London, in March 2001, then in Ealing Broadway, also in west London, in August 2001, and in Birmingham in November 2001.
Robert Hulme, described by Judge Gibbs as "one of the leading figures" in the plot, was jailed for 20 years, as was his brother.
Maguire, who the judge said played "a major part in the bombing conspiracy," was sentenced to 22 years.
McCormack was jailed for 22 years as well, while Hannan got 16 years. He was 17 at the time, and is thought to have been one of the youngest paramilitary suspects to appear before a British court.
"It was nothing short of a miracle that no pedestrians or others in clubs and pubs nearby did not suffer fatal injuries," prosecutor Mr Orlando Pownall told jurors during the trial.
The judge dealt with each jailed member of the gang separately.
Mr Justice Gibbs told Robert Hulme: "You are are a young man who willingly entered the conspiracy but were not one of the leading figures.
"You were given the specific task of holding the fort and looking after the explosive equipment on behalf of McCormack and others.
"You were not brought over to England until after the Wood Lane bomb but you were part of this conspiracy." He said Noel Maguire, nicknamed BD - brain dead - had made up for his low intellect by his force of personality. "You are capable of running a business, albeit illegally," the judge said of Maguire's diesel washing activities.
"You played a major part in the conspiracy, helping purchase vehicles and guide the taxi to its Wood Lane location." Aidan Hulme's part in the plot came to an early end after he was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident in Ireland. But the jury had been satisfied he was part of the conspiracy, said the judge.
McCormack played a significant and the most serious part in the detonation or attempted detonations.
"You acknowledge you were responsible for Hannan's involvement," the judge said.
Hannan "played a major part in the detonation or attempted detonation of the third device, which like others was a potentially dangerous, lethal device.
"You were only 17 at the time. Maguire arranged for you to come to England. After that you came under the influence of McCormack."
But Hannan's age and plea of guilty had helped reduce the sentence.
The outcome came a day after President Bush joined the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair and the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, in Belfast in calling upon the Northern factions to make a complete and irrevocable break with paramilitary activity.
It also came on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the Belfast Agreement. - (Reuters/PA)