The close-knit Border community, where several families are linked through marriages, between south Armagh and south Monaghan, was slowly coming to terms yesterday with the horrific killing of 21-year-old Cullyhanna lorry driver Paul Quinn.
Throughout the day hundreds of family friends from both sides of the Border, as well as neighbours and social associates, travelled to the young man's home on the Drumlougher Road, near Cullyhanna, to offer their condolences and comfort his grieving parents, Stephen and Briege Quinn, his brother James and sister Cathy.
A postmortem examination was carried out yesterday on the remains of the victim who died at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, Co Louth, in the wake of a horrific and savage beating inflicted by a group of about 10 men at a farm shed off the main Newtownhamilton to Castleblayney Road at Tullycoora, near Oram village on Saturday evening.
Yesterday, as gardaí conducted house-to-house inquiries in the immediate area where the attack on the young man and two of his friends took place, the PSNI also continued their investigations on the Northern side of the Border.
Meanwhile, in the wake of a claim by the victim's family that the attack was carried out by individual members of the IRA as a result of an ongoing dispute, and his refusal to move out of the area, there were claims and counter-claims about a possible motive for the attack.
While former Sinn Féin councillor Jim McAllister, a neighbour of the victim's family, said individual republican elements were to blame for the killing, other Sinn Féin sources denied all involvement by republicans, and suggested the man's death was the result of a feud involving criminal elements.
Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams joined local Sinn Féin Assembly member Conor Murphy in condemning the attack on Mr Quinn, and he totally rejected claims that the killing was linked to the IRA. However, Mr McAllister became embroiled in a brief verbal exchange with Mr Adams on radio yesterday, during which he claimed the victim had received two previous threats, and was told by a woman who called to his home some time prior to the fatal weekend attack that he would "end up in a black bag".
While local sources in the Border area insisted yesterday that the killing had "definite links" to a major fuel laundering and smuggling racket, gardaí were reluctant to confirm such a motive for the attack.
However, Garda sources agreed it was probable the young man's assailants had only planned to give him a severe beating and not kill him.
One senior Garda source said: "this atrocity will no doubt bring a lot of the hassle which has gone on between certain elements in the area into the open and should, hopefully, lead to the culprits of this savage attack being identified and brought to book".
Gardaí also renewed their appeal yesterday to the public for any information regarding the movement of vehicles or individuals in the Border area on Saturday afternoon and evening, which may have been associated with the attack on Mr Quinn and his friends.
His friends, who were asked to invite him to the shed where the vicious attack took place, are understood to have been interviewed by the PSNI following their discharge from Daisy Hill Hospital, Newry, Co Down, where they were treated for minor injuries on Saturday night.
It emerged yesterday that the attack on Mr Quinn bore a close similarity to an attack carried out with equal ferocity on another young man in the same area a few years ago.
The victim, Aidan McMahon (30), who has now recovered, was badly beaten and sustained severe head, leg and arm injuries. He was attacked by a group of men on the roadside near his home close to the Border. Mr McMahon's brother, Eamon, was found shot dead in a car along a Border road in south Armagh several years previously. No one ever claimed responsibility but it was widely believed the IRA was behind his death.