The parents of murdered Co Armagh man Paul Quinn have welcomed assurances from the Government that it does not believe their son had any links to criminality.
Briege and Stephen Quinn met with Foreign Affairs minister Dermott Ahern today to raise concerns about comments made by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in the wake of the 21-year-old's killing, when he suggested it may have been linked to criminal gangs. The Quinn family believe their son, who was beaten to death in a shed in Co Monaghan eight weeks ago, was murdered by the IRA because of a personal feud with one of its members.They say claims by senior Sinn Féin figures that the incident was linked to fuel smuggling are entirely false and merely an attempt to take the focus off potential IRA involvement.During today's meeting in Dundalk, Mr Ahern clarified the Government's view and told the Quinns he and the Taoiseach were sure their son was not a criminal.Mr Ahern said there was nothing to suggest that the killing had been orchestrated by the Provisionals, but did not rule out the involvement of individual former paramilitaries."Obviously this is a terrible crime and it's vital that the Garda and PSNI work together to ensure that we get the culprits, they should not go unpunished," said the minister.
"From any security briefings that we've received there's nothing to suggest that this was an orchestrated event from a paramilitary organisation. That's not to say that there may have been people who have formerly been members of a paramilitary organisation who may have been involved in this."
The Quinns said the meeting with Mr Ahern had provided them with great satisfaction. "We met Minister Dermot Ahern this morning and he told us very clearly that it is not the view of the Irish government that our son was a criminal," said Briege Quinn.
"This has lifted a great weight from our shoulders. Once we got over the shock of Paul's death, nothing has caused us more hurt and pain than these allegations. It was one thing to hear them from certain political quarters in the north, but when the Taoiseach stood up in the Dail and seemed to be backing them up, it made things a lot worse for us.