Shot republican freed from jail last year

A dissident republican shot and killed in south Armagh had been freed from jail in the Republic of Ireland last year, it emerged today.

Martin Conlon, 35, was abducted and then hit several times in the head before his body was dumped on a roadside near the village of Keady.

Detectives believe he was the victim of a fall-out with former associates who may have been linked to the Real IRA, the organisation which bombed Omagh in August 1998 killing 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins.

He lived at Railway Street, Armagh, and was found unconscious just outside the neighbouring village of Keady before he died in Craigavon Area hospital later.

Conlon was one of six men jailed at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin in March 2001 after he pleaded guilty to training people in the use of firearms.

It followed a special security operation when armed police surrounded a field at Strathmullen, Co Meath, and a farm in Co Louth which was being used as a Real IRA training camp.

He served a four-year sentence in Portlaoise Prison and was released last year.

His body was discovered at Farnaloy Road, close to the Madden estate outside Keady, and about a mile and a half from where his car, a silver Volkswagen Passat was later found burned out.

Forensic experts also examined a second car as part of their investigation.

SDLP councillor Gerald Mallon said: “This has hallmarks of a paramilitary murder. This was a horrific murder and no family should ever have to face what his family are facing.”

Ulster Unionist Newry and Armagh member of the suspended Northern Ireland Assembly Danny Kennedy said he too believed there was a republican paramilitary link. He would await the outcome of the police investigations before reaching any definite conclusions.

He added: “I am certain that most would agree with me when I say I thought the days of discovering bodies dumped at the side of south Armagh roads were gone, never to return.”

Meanwhile the area’s Sinn Féin MP Conor Murphy called for an end to to dissident republican violence.

He said: “It has absolutely no strategy towards achieving any political objective. I think more and more in recent times it has been shown to be drifting towards outright gangsterism.”