The early release of Michael Stone, one of the most notorious loyalist terrorists of the Troubles, will be seen by many people as an unpalatable outcome of the Belfast Agreement. Stone was convicted of a total of 35 charges, including the murder of six Catholics and five attempted murders, and was sentenced to almost 700 years to run concurrently in 1989. In one of the worst incidents of the 30 years of violence in Northern Ireland, he mounted a gun and grenade attack on mourners at an IRA funeral in Milltown Cemetery in Belfast in March, 1988, killing three men and injuring 60 people. Stone was set free yesterday as part of the final tranche of early prisoner releases to take place under the Belfast Agreement. He walked from the Maze prison having served 12 years of six life sentences for the most despicable crimes. More than 80 other prisoners - republican and loyalist - will follow by Friday. They will include James McArdle, convicted of the IRA's bombing at Canary Wharf in February 1996; Bernard McGinn, the IRA Border sniper, and Sean Kelly, a member of the IRA unit which carried out the Shankill Road fish shop bombing in October, 1993.
There can be no doubt about the hurt being caused to the victims of violence and their families by the final wave of prisoner releases this week. Sensitivities will be laid bare and old wounds re-opened in many households in Northern Ireland. The pain will be felt on both sides of the community when prisoners who have inflicted death and destruction on loved ones are seen to walk free.
However regrettable the spectacle of Michael Stone, flanked by the Ulster Freedom Fighters' flag, being greeted by 50 well-wishers, one essential truth must be borne in mind. The programme for an accelerated programme for the release of republican and loyalist prisoners is an essential component of the Belfast Agreement. It provided that prisoners affiliated to organisations which established, and maintained, "a complete and unequivocal ceasefire" would benefit from the arrangements. The stated intention, in the agreement, was that, should the circumstances allow it, "any qualifying prisoners who remained in custody two years after the commencement of the scheme, would be released at that point".
Without the early release scheme and all of its unpalatable implications, it is arguable if the two Governments could have successfully completed the negotiation of the Belfast Agreement. The fate of prisoners has been an integral part of peace processes around the world. The release of prisoners like Michael Stone and his republican counterparts, who have perpetrated unspeakable crimes in the name of both traditions on this island, is part and parcel of the accord which has brought about the establishment of the Executive and Assembly, the promised reform of the RUC, the North/South political institutions and, most of all, relative peace on the streets of Northern Ireland.
Sinn Fein is likely to place renewed pressure on the Government to have the IRA killers of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe included within the early release programme. These men were specifically excluded from the terms of the Belfast Agreement. Meanwhile, many will bitterly contrast the continued detention of a garda's killers with the freedom now enjoyed by those who have murdered RUC officers. The men who killed Jerry McCabe will serve what has been described as a "significant" term. But they have not been convicted of murder, merely of manslaughter while one has been convicted of conspiracy. Sinn Fein and the IRA will have to accept they will not see their men free for some time. This issue will be solved eventually by pragmatism all round.