SINN FEIN has been challenged by Mr Seamus Mallon and Sir Patrick Mayhew to condemn the New Year's Day murder of Mr Ian Lyons in Lurgan, Co Armagh. The IRA, using the cover name of Direct Action Against Drugs, was widely blamed for the killing, Cardinal Cahal Daly, also condemning the killing, asked if the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, was being undermined within his own organisation by such actions. Sinn Fein said there was no evidence to link the IRA to the killing.
Mr Lyons was struck at close range by at least two shotgun blasts as he sat in his car with his girlfriend at Conor Park near the nationalist Taghnevan estate in Lurgan around 7.40 p.m. on New Year's Night.
He was taken to Craigavon Area Hospital and transferred to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast where he died early yesterday.
Mr Lyons (31), who had a two year old son, was known to police as a small time criminal. The RUC said he was not a "major figure" in the drugs trade. His family said it was "astounded" by claims he was involved in drug trafficking. The killers were cowards, the family said.
Direct Action Against Drugs admitted the murder. Since the ceasefire, the IRA has been blamed for murdering seven people six of whom were allegedly involved in drug dealing. Five of the murders were carried out in the past four weeks.
The Northern Secretary said he was "pretty convinced" the IRA killed Mr Lyons. He challenged Sinn Fein to condemn the murder. The SDLP deputy leader said Northern Ireland had witnessed "five public executions" in recent weeks. Mr Mallon said he "very firmly" believed the IRA was responsible.
The agenda behind the murders was to help the IRA to continue to impose its will in certain communities. "I think it is now incumbent on all those people in Sinn Fein who are part of the democratic political process not Just to condemn those responsible, but to disown them, and to disown them publicly, Mr Mallon added.
Mr Ken Maginnis, the Ulster Unionist Party's security spokesman, said the recent killings were part of an IRA strategy designed to end its ceasefire. He predicted the IRA would soon kill a loyalist involved in the drugs trade, hoping to provoke a reaction which would ultimately destroy the cease fires.
Cardinal Cahal Daly described the killing of Mr Lyons as repulsive. He said he thought Mr Adams had attempted to influence those responsible, but asked "Is he being undermined from within his own organisation? Time will tell, but time is running out for the peace process.
The Sinn Fein chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, said there was no evidence to link the murder to the IRA. No political party could condone such killings, he added.
However, he suggested the killing could not be separated from what he called the unacceptability of the RUC in nationalist and republican areas. The issue of policing could not be tackled, until all party talks were initiated, he added.
Supt Kevin Sheehy, head of the RUC Drugs Squad, said "every police officer and every citizen" in Northern Ireland knew the Direct Action group did not exist independently from the IRA.
Det Insp Derek McLaughlin, who is leading the investigation into Mr Lyons's murder, said the victim "was known" to the police but that he was not a leading criminal. "Mr Lyons was certainly not a major figure in any sort of criminal activity," he said.
Asked about Sinn Fein's complaint that the RUC was not acceptable in nationalist areas, Insp McLaughlin said there was no area of Lurgan which the police could not patrol. He said there was widespread revulsion in nationalist areas of Lurgan at the killing of Mr Lyons.
