Two IRA members jailed for killing Detective Garda Jerry McCabe today lost their bid for freedom.
Pearse McAuley and Jeremiah Sheehy, who are serving 14 and 12 years respectively for the manslaughter of the senior policeman, had claimed the detention breached their human rights.
Legal teams for the men also argued the British government’s refusal to release them breached their rights under the Constitution, the Belfast Agreement and the European Convention on Human Rights.
McAuley, originally from Strabane, Co Tyrone, and Sheehy, from Limerick, pleaded guilty at the non-jury Special Criminal Court to the manslaughter of Det. Gda McCabe during an attempted robbery outside Adare Post Office in June 1996.
They pleaded guilty at a non-jury special criminal court in 1999.
Mr Justice Daniel Herbert, sitting in Dublin’s High Court, dismissed their application and ruled the detention was not discrimination.