THE FATHER of murder victim Paul Quinn welcomed and accepted the IMC report as confirmation of his belief that it was "a local outfit belonging to the IRA that would have done this".
Stephen Quinn said: "We said from the very start that we didn't think it was sanctioned high up in the IRA. People with some influence in the IRA were at the back of this." He said he remained confident that arrests would be made and justice would be done.
The Quinn family support group met last night in south Armagh to digest the IMC findings and to plan its next move.
Its spokesman, Jim McAllister said: "From day one, we said it was local south Armagh business. We also stressed it was due to lack of respect to leading figures in the area who think they are entitled to respect for past glories, if you like.
"The report actually goes into that in some detail. It clears the leadership. We expected that."
Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said those guilty were "murderers and criminals". He added that everyone, including republicans, had a duty "to co-operate with the Garda and the PSNI to ensure that these criminals are brought to justice".
"I don't care who was involved in the murder of Paul Quinn what label they had on them, what label people believe they had on them. You couldn't get a stronger denunciation of the people responsible for the murder of Paul Quinn than that," he added. Speaking in Dublin, Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams echoed Mr McGuinness's remarks and denounced the IMC which, he said, "had no role to play in the political process".
Northern Secretary Shaun Woodward welcomed the report's conclusion that republicans were sticking to constitutional politics.
DUP MP Gregory Campbell accepted the findings, but said the only way to ensure there was no IRA involvement in crime was to stand down its army council.
"Where the PIRA is not active there is no need for the continued existence of such a structure. Its existence remains a negative influence in communities such as south Armagh."
SDLP Newry and Armagh Assembly member Dominic Bradley insisted the IMC report had not absolved the IRA of blame.
"No one in Cullyhanna has ever claimed the [ IRA] army council ordered this murder. It is quite clear that the killers were disobeying the organisation, but they were acting within its local structures. Paul was killed by Provos who had access to the infrastructure of the Provisional IRA's south Armagh command.
"That is the line gardaí are following and it is the only line.We want to see the disbandment of the local murder machine and an end to the political cover provided for it by Sinn Féin."
Traditional Unionist Voice MEP Jim Allister called the report a whitewash. "It is preposterous to argue that because the murder wasn't supposedly sanctioned, then it wasn't an IRA killing," he said.
Alliance leader David Ford said the report had left significant questions unanswered. "In particular, many will continue to believe that there was IRA involvement in covering up the murder," he said.