WELCOME

A warm welcome to this blog which, hopefully, will be useful in the search for justice for the Quinn family.
It is good to see that the Gardai are working away on the case. The murder gang will always interpret quiet periods as a sign that the investigation is bogged down and an arrest like this will concern them. It would be interesting to know how the gardai knew this particular man was in their area; There are whispers, but I must stress they are only whispers, of someone, purportedly a friend of his, phoning the gardai.
South Armagh is a worse place to live now in many ways than it was during the 30 years of shooting and bombing. At that time local people were not afraid of their neighbours but now they are. We have lots of thugs and bullies who appear able to operate freely. Our councillors shout to the high heavens about affrays when nobody connected to them is involved but are strangely silent about most affrays because their friends and members are involved. It is, of course, Sinn Féin councillors I refer to as they have 4 out of 5 seats in the Slieve Gullion area which runs from Killeen to Culloville. Likewise with the district policing partnership on which they are the majority and which they use for party political advantage rather than to make policing accountable. I am not saying that this is what is happening all over the 6 counties as I can only speak about my own area. Likewise, I am in no way anti republican being a republican myself, I am simply anti anyone who uses their position to protect murderers.
What I want to see is justice for the Quinn family and a sth Armagh where the young people, and the older as well, can go out and about day or night without being afraid of being attacked.

Quinns Respond To Latest Arrest

In a statement to The Examiner the parents of murdered man Paul Quinn have expressed satisfaction at the latest proof the Gardai are still actively pursuing those who murdered their son. Responding to the arrest in co Monaghan of a man from the Cullyhanna area Stephen and Breege Quinn told The Examiner "It does us good to see public proof of what we already know, that the Gardai and the PSNI" are working away on the case all the time. Sometimes when things are quiet people get the idea that everything has stopped but the Gardai have assured us time and time again that it will not stop , that the case will not go away until the culprits are charged.

They also tell us that little bits of information are still coming in and that no matter how small this is very important." The Quinns also told The Examiner that they received a lot of calls from politicians and the general public on both sides of the border welcoming the latest arrest. Stephen Quinn said, "All sorts of people contacted us, probably all parties, all Nationalist parties anyhow except one, the party of our M.P. doesn't seem to place much importance on this investigation but we knew that anyhow so we were no way disappointed".

Mr and Mrs Quinn finished by saying that they were pledged, along with their support group, to carry on the campaign for justice until it is achieved and again thanked "all the lovely people who have been so supportive whether privately or publicly."

The Murder of Paul Quinn

On the afternoon of Saturday 20th October 2007, Paul Quinn of Cullyhanna got a phone message that work was available across the border clearing a shed to make it ready for cattle. The message was sent by two young men known to him who had been kidnapped in Oram, Co. Monaghan and forced to make the call. Paul brought another young man from Cullyhanna to help him and drove to the cattle shed.

There he was systematically beaten with iron bars and nail-studded cudgels by a group of 9-12 men dressed in boiler suits and surgical gloves. They operated within a clear command system and as they beat him they told him that now he knew who were the bosses in the area. Before they left the scene they sprayed the area with an unknown chemical.

They also injured the three other young men and smashed their mobile phones. However, one phone remained operational and the young men called Paul’s girlfriend and asked her to call an ambulance. He was taken from the shed around 6pm and he died in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, around 8pm.

Mr Quinn's family issued a short statement saying he had recently been involved in altercations with individual members of the Provisional IRA, which had issued an exiling order through an innocent intermediary: "Our son courageously and correctly refused to leave. We believe he was abducted by the Provisional movement and brutally beaten to death."