Ó Caoláin: IRA a bulwark against dissident republicans

SINN FÉIN’s Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin has suggested the IRA represents a bulwark against the growing dissident republican movement.

Speaking in the Dáil yesterday, Mr Ó Caoláin said dissident republicans were attempting to create the impression that dissolution of the IRA army council would be “the panacea for all the difficulties on the island of Ireland”. The dissidents were doing this so that they could step into the vacuum that would be created by the IRA’s removal.

Mr Ó Caoláin was responding to claims made by Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny about crime levels in the border region of South Armagh. Earlier this year, Mr Kenny met with the family of Paul Quinn, the 21-year-old who died last October after being beaten by up to 12 persons in a cattle shed near Castleblayney, Co Monaghan.