Unionists seek meeting with Brown after 'IRA murder' claims

The DUP are seeking talks with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown after claims by the House of Lords in England that the IRA in South Armagh was involved directly in the murder of a man left with almost every bone in his body broken.

Lord Laird of Artigarvan used parliamentary privilege to name the men he claimed were linked to the killing close to the border last month.

Paul Quinn, 21, from Cullyhanna, south Armagh, was beaten with iron bars by a gang of men in a farm outbuilding in Co Monaghan.

Sinn Féin has categorically denied republicans were involved but after claims from UUP peer Lord Laird that the IRA was behind the killing, Lagan Valley MP Jeffrey Donaldson warned his party would seek a meeting at Downing Street.

“If it is proven that the IRA were involved at that level then we will be seeking a meeting with the (British) Prime Minister to consider the political implications for the current structures of government in Northern Ireland,” he said.

Lord Laird’s claims, during resumed Lords debate on the legislative programme, came on the day the ceasefire watchdog, the Independent Monitoring Commission, blamed the murder on IRA members, past or present, or their associates.

But the commission, describing it as “a local dispute”, said it was too early to say if the killing of the South Armagh man had been authorised by the IRA leadership. Sinn Féin insists that no republican was involved.

The IMC’s John Grieve said: “Despite the fact that we are saying it is a local dispute, we do believe that those who were involved in the attack on him – in his brutal murder – included people who are members or former members or have associations with members or former members of the Provisional IRA.”