“I have spoken to the IRA in his area..”

On Newsnight tonight, BBC2 10.30pm, Liz McKean will have a report on political tensions following the killing of Paul Quinn. From the Newsnight blog

Liz MacKean has a report on increasing paramilitary violence in Northern Ireland. The story centres on the murder last month of Paul Quinn in South Armagh. Both his family and the Independent Monitoring Commission point the finger at members of the IRA but politicians on all sides reject the claims. We’ll also be speaking to Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward.

They’ve already spoken to the Northern Ireland Executive’s Minister for Regional Development, Conor Murphy, MP, MLA.

“I have spoken to the IRA in his area and I am satisfied with the assurances they gave me, very solid assurances, that they weren’t involved in his death,” [Conor Murphy] says.

Indeed..

Adds The BBC reports that more than 200 people attended a public meeting tonight in Cullyhanna.

Update In the Newsnight report, available here [RealPlayer file], according to Conor Murphy, MP, MLA, the Provisional IRA is in the process of “requires a managed transition”.And From today’s Irish Times [subs req]

Mr Murphy yesterday evening called on Mr McAllister and the Quinn support group to “take decisive action” to end the campaign of “violence and intimidation” against Mr Treanor.

He said people associated with the Quinn group had falsely accused Mr Treanor and his family of involvement in the killing.

Mr Murphy repeated his call for anyone with any information relating to the murder of Paul Quinn to bring that information forward to the Garda and PSNI.

Mr McAllister, however, rejected Mr Murphy’s complaints, saying members of the group were not involved in any intimidation or attacks, and that the group condemned such actions.

He accused Mr Murphy of trying to create a “smokescreen” to distract attention from the IRA’s alleged involvement in Mr Quinn’s murder.

“Conor Murphy is struggling to cope with the fact that the majority of the people of south Armagh believe in their hearts the IRA murdered Paul Quinn, and that sadly their MP is trying to give them cover,” said Mr McAllister.

Pete Baker