Gardaí Appeals For Help In Quinn Killing

As the post-mortem on murdered Cullyhanna man, Paul Quinn gets underway today, an appeal has been issued for information on the brutal killing - which the dead man’s family is blaming on IRA members.

Supt Karl Heller of Carrickmacross gardaí station said: "We are appealing to anybody who may have travelled along the main Castleblayney-Newtownhamilton Road between 5pm and 7pm on Saturday evening, and may have seen anything unusual which would be helpful to us, to come forward.”

Gardaí also inspected an oil tanker and a lorry, located in the area, as part of their investigation.

But they said they did not believe the attack was connected to fuel smuggling along the Border, as alleged by Sinn Fein president, Gerry Adams, when he refuted claims yesterday that republicans carried out the vicious assault.

Local reports indicate that the dead man was the youngest child of Stephen and Brid Quinn, a well-known and respected couple from the border area.

Local priest Fr Kevin Mullan said the deceased was "lively as a young lad searching for what life was about", having left school in his mid-teens.

"The feeling is one of gloom. Paul lost a friend of his, Brendan McCooey, from the area a few months ago when he drowned on holiday in Crete," said Fr Mullan.

The Sinn Fein MLA the Northern Ireland Assembly’s Regional Development Minister, Conor Murphy, has also said he did not believe there was any republican involvement in the murder.

(BMcC)