"Murderers have disgraced the parish as well as themselves" says Cullyhanna priest

A very wet and dark Friday night past saw a large attendance at the third anniversary mass for murder victim, Paul Quinn, held in St Patricks Church, Cullyhanna. The church was close to full with many of the congregation being from the younger generation.

In his homily, Fr Cullen said that Paul was murdered three years ago and that the murderers had also disgraced the parish as well as themselves. Fr Cullen went on to say that punishment beatings and shootings had always been wrong.

After mass over one hundred of the congregation made their way to the Community centre for refreshments provided by the Quinn Support Group and to see a display of press cuttings and a power point display of television programmes relating to the murder and the search for justice.

Amongst those who attended were T.Ds Rory O’Hanlon and Margaret Conlon of Fianna Fail, MLA Dominic Bradley of the SDLP, Councillors Sean McCooey of Fianna Fail and Geraldine Donnelly of the SDLP. Ian Bothwell, well known for his work with the Crossfire Trust attended along with his wife. Members of the Gardai were also there in a personal capacity. Paul Quinn’s parents, Stephen and Breege told the Examiner of their gratitude to all who came to the mass and the get together afterwards. Breege said “The big crowd at Mass gave us great heart and the words of Fr Cullen were so true and were a comfort to us. I also want to thank Fr Cullen for the mass as well as Dervla McCoy for the lovely singing and Martin McAllister for the music”. Stephen expressed the family’s thanks for all the support to date and said, “Seeing the big turn out again this year is very good and people like TDs going out of their way to join us and our friends and neighbours is very touching for us. It is good to meet our friends and we met Michael Lamb, and his wife Deirdre, from New York who is over on a break; Michael has helped us any way he can from over there and we are so thankful to him and all the other good people.” The Quinn family also spoke of the help they get from the Quinn Support group and said Paul McCooey and Brendan had done great work in setting up the media display and thanked Mona McEntee and family for their “usual efficient supply of good food.”