THE IRA organisation did not kill Paul Quinn although "local members or former members" of the republican group were involved in his murder, the Independent Monitoring Commission has found.
The IMC devoted a carefully worded chapter in its latest report on paramilitary violence, published yesterday, dealing with the beating to death of Mr Quinn (21), from Cullyhanna in south Armagh, in a Co Monaghan barn last October.
Its ruling exonerating the IRA leadership and the IRA as an organisation from any responsibility for the killing is expected to head off any potential for the destabilisation of the Stormont powersharing administration.
The IMC said it was not attributing the "killing to PIRA" (Provisional IRA) for a number of reasons, including the "local and personal nature of the roots" of the murder, the absence of any indication of any organisational sanction for the murder, and because the killing was contrary to the peace process policy the IRA was following for the previous two years.
"The killing was clearly contrary to the instructions and strategy of the leadership of PIRA. It was also contrary to the interests of PIRA and to those of Sinn Féin. We are aware of no evidence linking the leadership of PIRA to the incident," it reported.
"We think that the attack on Paul Quinn was planned and carried out by local people and that it arose from local disputes. Whatever the immediate reason for the killing, certain aspects of these disputes go back some time and were not unconnected with continuing illegal activity," it added.
Asked did the comment about illegal activity suggest that Mr Quinn was implicated in such activity, Lord Alderdice of the IMC would not elaborate.
"We have said what we have said, very carefully," he said.
There is an apparent contradiction in this chapter dealing with the Quinn murder. Initially the IMC states: "Amongst those involved were people who had in various ways been associated with the PIRA at a local level, including as members of the organisation."
This could suggest that those involved were not in the IRA at the time of the killing.
However, later in this two-page chapter the IMC states: "The fact that some local members or former members or associates of the organisation were involved in the incident does not in our view justify attributing it to PIRA."
This states that the killers "were" IRA members or former members at the time of the murder, which seems at odds with the IMC's paragraph above that they "had been" associated with the IRA. The phrase, "members or former members" of the IRA, also lacks clarity in that it could mean the killers were members at the time or that at the time, none of the killers was actually in the IRA.
Queried about this, Lord Alderdice again did not wish to elaborate. The IMC also found that some of those who killed Mr Quinn felt they had a long-standing form of autonomy and local influence in south Armagh.
It reported: "This would have led such people to expect what they would consider as appropriate respect from others and to being able to undertake their activities - including criminal ones - without interference. They would find it very difficult to accept any waning in this influence and respect."
The IMC also noted that the IRA leadership has had "some difficulties in the past in exercising authority in south Armagh" but did not regard this "recent rejection of instructions as a general problem".
The IMC also blamed a relatively new dissident republican organisation, Óglaigh na hÉireann, for the murder of Andrew Burns across the Border in Co Donegal in February. It said Burns was a member of that group.
