Opinion

Tom Kelly: A simple question for the savage killers of Paul Quinn

Tom Kelly

Tom Kelly

Tom Kelly is an Irish News columnist with a background in politics and public relations. He is also a former member of the Policing Board.

Paul Quinn who was murdered after being lured to a farm shed across the border in Co Monaghan
Paul Quinn who was murdered after being lured to a farm shed across the border in Co Monaghan Paul Quinn who was murdered after being lured to a farm shed across the border in Co Monaghan

When I socialise with my best mates over a few pints we mostly talk about politics, football and our families.

Even though we have been together for nearly forty years we reminiscence a lot. We talk of mild skirmishes with the law, disastrous dates, drunken escapades, youthful holiday frolics and the haze from our student days.

Our faces have not kept pace with the freshness of those memories. Those recollections are mostly happy. Whilst I am sure that our folks lost some sleep as we lived though those days, these memories don’t haunt our sleep. We don’t have cold night sweats over them.

Now I don’t know Breege Quinn or her husband, Stephen. In fact I have never met the family. Though, through Facebook, I see the things that Breege likes, such as church, funny sketches, appeals for charities and missing people and hairdressers. Yes, she definitely seems to like hairdressers. The ‘shares’ on her page are mostly messages of goodwill and prayers. Though sometimes her happy go lucky Facebook persona is punctuated with references to stories about victims of the Troubles. And then, of course, she maintains her vigil for her murdered son by continuing to campaign with her husband for justice.

But Paul Quinn who was just 21 when he died wasn’t just murdered; he was cudgelled, beaten, broken and battered with clubs, iron bars and axes. In his mothers words he was “crucified.” Certainly Paul was scourged, flogged, had his bones shattered and his young heart would have given up through asphyxiation as he struggled to catch air to breathe. Again in his mother's words, she said the doctors who tried to save Paul told her, “there was nothing left to fix.” I don’t know about you but reading Breege Quinn’s words and the description of her son’s killing, my heart is heavy with the burden of knowing that this was a pre-meditated, callous and calculated murder, where a young man with his whole life ahead of him, was lured to his death.

As I watched Breege Quinn last week appeal for information on Paul’s murder, on what is now the tenth anniversary of his death, one could see that grief is etched on her face. Her voice is one of resolve but it is also one worn down by tears. To hear Stephen Quinn say that he watches those he believes to be responsible for Paul’s murder strutting about south Armagh on a daily basis is inconceivable to any casual observer.

What makes it inconceivable to anyone with a conscience is the belief that up to 22 people were involved in the planning, execution and cover-up of this murder. That apparently twelve people went into that barn on the October 20, 2007 armed like Neanderthal warmongers and in a frenzied orgy of barbaric savagery and violence beat a single, defenceless and alone young man goes beyond human comprehension.

As he struggled to escape their blows or as he cowed to protect his head, Paul’s blood would have splashed against the hands and faces of his tormentors, his tissue would have stuck to their weapons, their clothes and their boots. This was no random murder. This was no casual feud. The planning, execution and cover up was meticulous in its detail. The omerta that has ensued is familiar.

The Quinn family believe the IRA was behind their son’s murder. The gardai, the PSNI, the Independent Monitoring Commission and the respective departments of justice in both the Republic and Northern Ireland believe it too. But all are confronted with a wall of silence. So Paul’s death like many of the 3,000 murdered during the Troubles remains unsolved. Justice still awaits those who carried it out. Unlike those murders from the Troubles, Paul Quinn’s murder is amongst a handful of inconvenient and embarrassing truths because it was carried out by paramilitaries who technically are not supposed to exist since the ceasefires in the mid-nineties.

Catholic readers will be familiar with the concept of Mary, Mother of Sorrows and if anyone has ever visited the university city of Salamanca in Spain, at the Church of the Holy Cross there is a wonderful statue of the Virgin Mary with seven swords (sorrows) piercing her heart. Watching Breege Quinn, this is an image that has stuck in my mind. Her sorrows are also visible.

As for those who murdered Paul Quinn, a simple question: does his face haunt your dreams?