Analysis: Christmas amnesties for prisoners peaked in 1995 with 390 granted temporary release, but numbers have since swiftly declined.
Prisoner Amnesties
In 1979, during Pope John Paul II’s visit to Ireland, the Minister for Justice recommended that 68 prisoners be released to mark the occasion. The persons released in this amnesty were deemed “unlikely to be dangerous to the public” and were all due for release later in the year. However, always sensitive to public outrage, the Minister also recommended that the group should not be released until the final day of the papal itinerary. In a Department of Justice memo to Government, the reasoning was provided;
“It is considered that it would be unwise to take the risk of releasing a large number of offenders during the first day of the visit when Dublin’s dwelling houses will be virtually empty and releases on Sunday would pose staffing and transport problems.”
Previously, other occasions—usually major religious events— also led to more general prisoner amnesties taking place, yet they were often moderated by concerns of a more practical nature. In this case, fear of burglaries in the empty homes of massgoers at the Phoenix Park.