Confidential documents released this year also indicate that Gardai had been told not to arrest one fugitive if found as the warrant had used “Republic of Ireland”. Mr Ellis, who is now a Sinn Fein TD, was serving a prison sentence in Portlaoise Prison at the time of the extradition request. Mr Justice Niall McCarthy said the courts in Ireland “should refuse to sanction any further such refusal to recognise Article 4 of the Constitution”. In November 1990, Mr Ellis became the first person extradited from Ireland to the UK under the 1987 Extradition Act. He had gone on hunger strike in the days prior to his extradition to protest efforts to send him to Britain.

Source: The Herald December 28, 2023 05:10 UTC