Brutal Murder Echoes Past Killings

Despite Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams’ insistence there was no republican involvement in the fatal beating of Paul Quinn at the weekend, a former colleague of Mr Adams, ex Sinn Féin councillor, Jim McAllister said he believed the IRA was involved.

Speaking on RTÉ Radio's Today programme with Pat Kenny, he backed the dead man’s family in blaming the republican movement.

The 21-year-old's family said in a statement last night they believed the Provisional IRA was responsible for his death because he refused to leave the area after a dispute with IRA members.

The bloody killing - in which the victim was beaten with iron bars after being lured to an isolated farmhouse just across the Irish border from his home in Cullyhanna - has cast a new shadow over the future of the Stormont power-sharing executive.

It is likely to be compared to others previously alleged to involve the post-ceasefire IRA – with similarities in the republican leadership’s responses.

When long-term activist and confident of the republican leadership, Denis Donaldson, was brutally murdered in 2006 (also in an isolated farmhouse in the Irish Republic) after being exposed as a long-term British agent, Mr Adams said he wanted to "disassociate (his party) and all republicans who support the peace process from this killing".

This time, a gang of seven or eight men beat Mr Quinn after luring him to a farm at Tullycora near the village of Oram on Saturday evening.

Mr Quinn was conscious when he was discovered by gardaí, but died two hours later in hospital, after which Mr Adams described those responsible as criminals and said that he believed the murder may have been linked to fuel smuggling.

But, there have already been warnings from Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists and the Ulster Unionists about the political ramifications if it is proven that Paul Quinn was killed by the Provisional IRA.

Playing down the crisis, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said he did not believe the killing would have implications for the peace process and that he did not know what the background of the people involved was.

However, he said the killing had been condemned by Sinn Féin representatives who urged people to co-operate with the police.

(BMcC)

See: Border Murder Blamed On Provos

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