PSNI and Gardaí co-operating on murder investigation
In response to the attempted headline-grabbing proposal from Ian Paisley Jnr, on filling in the gaps left by not fully implementing Schengen, the Republic of Ireland’s Justice Minister Brian Lenihan stated that those gaps were “not a barrier to effective cooperation between the PSNI and the gardai.” That co-operation will be tested in the murder investigation currently underway after a 21-year-old man was reportedly lured across the border from Cullyhanna in south Armagh to a farm at Oram in County Monaghan where a gang of up to 15 men beat him to death with iron bars in an outhouse. RTÉ reports that the murder investigation is also looking at fuel-laundering, and the BBC reports that the victim’s family are blaming members of the Provisional IRA. The UTV report ends on this note
Gardaí in Monaghan have said that they are keeping an open mind regarding paramilitary involvement.
Adds The NI Regional Development minister, Sinn Féin’s Conor Murphy, is quoted in this report – “I do not believe that there is any republican involvement in this murder.”From the BBC report
The Cullyhanna man’s family say he was recently involved in a dispute with individual members of the IRA.
A short time later he was told to leave the country.
“Our son courageously and correctly refused to leave,” read a statement from the Quinn family.
“We believe that he was abducted by the Provisional movement and brutally beaten to death.”
“Again I hope beyond hope that people learn to wait for the truth before making up their minds about this.”
A very measured non-knee-jerk response from Ian Jnr this am.
– Awaiting police report
– Implications IF it was authorised by IRA
Contrast that relatively mature approach with calling the SF MP for the area “a lying reptile”.
I wonder, you’re right. We people shouldn’t be calling Mr Murphy a lying anything; not when lying pales in comparison to supporting murder.
I was struck by Conor Murphy’s assertion that “Republicans were not involved”.
Unless he knows who did it, how does he know they’re not republicans? What he seems to be trying to say is that SF/IRA weren’t involved, but is clearly reticent to explicitly link the two, despite what we all know.
Beano
The report is that Mr Murphy does not BELIEVE that the IRA was involved. If someone hates the IRA, of course that hatred will make it impossible to believe anything other than that they DID kill this guy and that it was a sanctioned and deliberate act of murder.
Thats the difference between having a closed mind and acting with a degree of responsibility – something which I’m pleasantly suprised to see in Ian P. Junior.
The reason people hate the IRA is because they murder, some people seem to struggle with that concept a little her.
Kidso,
Murphy is a convicted IRA terrorist. I am unsure what date he left the IRA but maybe Slugger’s legion of IRA apologists could reveal this as I am sure it would prove of interest.
Thats the difference between having a closed mind and acting with a degree of responsibility – something which I’m pleasantly suprised to see in Ian P. Junior.
Posted by I Wonder on Oct 22, 2007 @ 10:26 AM
Ahem ….
Remembering Conor Murphy’s character reference for Slab Murphy (a “good republican”), it’s hard to doubt the veracity of his assessment.
“The reason people hate the IRA is because they murder”
Who was it said something about: “loving your enemies”?
The same person who insisted that sinners repent first. Bludgeoning a man to death is quite a sin, wouldn’t you say?
Yes, I would say that killing innocents is both wrong and a sin. I would also say that any response to wrongdoing which expresses and urges hatred of the perpetrators is wrong.
Then again, I, unlike some, haven’t expressed jubilation at the death of innocents such as Jean Charles de Menezes or urged the bombing of Lebanon into the Stone Age. So I don’t feel inclined to take lessons in morality from any hatemonger.
A very effective riposte there from young Wonder.
Given that Jeffrey Donaldson has said DUP will reconsider participation in the execuitve if Provos are involved, this issue deserves an updated post?
I am appalled by the uncredibly brutal murder of John Quinn but even more so by the cocksure conviction of most interested Unionists making out for sure that the PIRA did it.
This occurred when the appointment of the Victims Commissioner had not yet been made, William Frazer’s Families Acting for Innocent Relatives (FAIR) was finally being obliged to meet Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness about their complaints, the murder of Robert McCartney has yet to be solved, etc.
Now it seems that a Victims Commissioner like the former temporary one will be appointed, Frazer’s FAIR group has cancelled its meeting with McGuinness because of the terrible murder, and there is talk about the whole Executive having to be reshaped to deal with the apparent revived viciousness of SF and the Provos.
In short, one should at least look at who stands to benefit by this simply over-the-top atrocity before making any knee-jerk reactions to it.
Have you critics of republicans learned nothing from the over-the-top murder of Alexander Litvinenko by the Mossad, MI6, Italy’s SIS MI – what was to force Putin’s Russia into a corner where it could be dictated to by the oil-hungry West?
Putin stood his ground about the obvious when it came to his killing, and you should stand so too – seeing that justice is really done for Quinn rather than just bark in ways which suit your narrow interests.
how will the DUP handle this one?
Initial repsonse from Babydoc indicates the same “pragmatic” wriggling as Trimble in government- i.e. leave it to the police, hoping the story peters out. Some change from the DUP pre 2006. We can bet noone will be charged or convicted, just as with the Mccartney case, and in 18 months the poor victim will be forgotewn except by his family.
An indication of the new order is to be found in the experience of the UUP ministers at Thursday’s executive meeting, who are alleged to have sat in a room on their own for 20 minutes as the SF/DUP ministers were locked in the great Crocodile’s office planning how to handle the Ritchie problem.Say it ain’t so, Punt!
If you’re going to spout off, Trowbridge, you could at least get the guy’s name right.
So, the victim’s name is Paul Quinn, not John Quinn – the guy the Mid-Ulster UVF murdered in March 1991. Sinn Fein lied about it to hide how the loyalists were reducing its ranks – what it no longer does.
Now I have corrected this minor mistake, you can continue your rant,
*the over-the-top murder of Alexander Litvinenko by the Mossad, MI6, Italy’s SIS MI*
What, all of them?
Hey what’s that rolling around the floor? Marbles? Er, Trowbridge, here they are! I found them, now try not to lose them again, eh?
So Conor Murphy says repblicans aren’t involved. What he really means is, now that these people have done something which is going to bring heat on us i.e. SF, they are criminals.
Remember Gerry Adams, “I don’t talk to criminals” rebuke. The men involved will now be shunned publicly by SF, until the heat surrounding this heinous murder subsides.
SF have learned well from their masters. Remember how an RUC/UDR member suddenly became an ex-member when arrested.
Well according to the belfast tele the gardai were saying the guys were ex-ira (ie not just sf).
Andy
Given that it has been widely accepted that the IRA has disbanded, how can they be anything other than ex-IRA.
Widely accepted by whom? I know they had largely disarmed, but I dont recall any statement about them disbanding….
Andy
They have disarmed and I believe largely shead the hardmen problem is hardmen dont suddenly take up flower arranging and gardening. Left to their own devices they continue on the path they started on regardless of affiliation
Andy
Sorry, I could’ve put that better. I meant to say disarmed. And what is an army without weapons?
An army with iron bars?
Sean
“Left to their own devices they continue on the path they started on regardless of affiliation”.
What path do you have in mind?
Since it was never an army in the first place [hint: they don't whine about *their* human rights when real armies shoot back at them], the Provos remain what they always were. A bunch of hoods, sectarian gunmen, illiterate killers and drug dealing psychos. The fact that a dozen or so of these cowardly scum have murdered yet another person really only should remind us just how many people Martin and co have *already* killed.
Judging by the commentary from some of the unionist contributors to this website, you could be forgiven for thinking they lick their lips at the mere thought of someone being murdered by the IRA.
Now form an orderly queue to pretend your concern is really for the victims and their families …
Ahern
I’m not usually one to interrupt a good rant but have you ever heard of the Geneva Convention?
But re. to my original point, I see Gerry Adams has wasted no time in branding the killers as criminals.
“Judging by the commentary from some of the unionist contributors to this website, you could be forgiven for thinking they lick their lips at the mere thought of someone being murdered by the IRA.”
y’know, when – once again BTW- we’re probably going to be proved to be correct in our analysis that the Provos are just not the sort of people who should be allowed into any government it’s a bit rich to be criticised because there’s a danger that we might have been right all along. Which would still be the case even if this crime were carried out by the boy scouts
Darth
Why arent Sinn Fein the sort to be allowed in government, is it because the unionistas are true democrats…. oh yeah not really huh