SF came in for criticism at a meeting of the Justice for Paul Quinn campaign, writes Carissa Caseyin Castleblayney.
The Justice for Paul Quinn campaign moved south of the Border on Wednesday night and made its first tentative step towards a rapprochement with Sinn Féin.
Among several TDs present at the campaign's third public meeting at a Castleblayney hotel, just a few miles from the remote farm where the 21-year-old south Armagh man was battered to death in October, was Sinn Féin's Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin.
Mr Ó Caoláin spoke privately to Mr Quinn's parents before the meeting and expressed sympathy to them on behalf of his party.
"I believe that has been sincerely accepted," he later told the meeting. "I think that was an important moment and I hope that tonight's meeting will mark a new direction in terms of the address of what is the core objective of the Quinn family, an objective that I believe is universally respected by all opinion in this room."
Mr Ó Caoláin was invited to be the first of the politicians to speak at the meeting by chairman Jim McAllister, and received polite if unenthusiastic applause when he finished.
Mr Quinn's parents have repeatedly stated they believe members of the Provisional IRA were involved in their son's brutal murder. Senior members of Sinn Féin, including leader Gerry Adams and the Quinns' local MP Conor Murphy, have denied any republican involvement and claim it related to a feud among criminal gangs.
Mr Ó Caoláin did not withdraw the further allegation made by Mr Murphy that Paul Quinn was involved in criminality. However, he received a round of applause when he said "nobody in any circumstances deserved to meet the terrible death that he [Paul] was subjected to.
"For me it isn't the issue whether Paul was involved in some activities or he wasn't. What happened to Paul, which has been quite rightly said here tonight, was a criminal act and those responsible were criminals and no other name applies."
However, he also claimed that the Quinn campaign could sow the seeds of "very serious disaffection, distrust and a lack of harmony and cohesion in their own community if we don't rise above the whole issue of what has separated voices heretofore.
"We cannot turn back what has been said. People will have their views and opinions. I don't have views because I never knew Paul Quinn. I don't live in the community and I can't offer an opinion other than the opinions that I have had shared with me, when for me it is absolutely academic whether Paul was involved in this or that or the other.
"I am 100 per cent behind the campaign to secure truth and justice but I am not alone in that demand. Any inference that my colleague Conor Murphy is in any way at variance or distance or remove of what I am saying here tonight, I want to absolutely scotch that view.
"We must ensure that tonight's meeting represents a turning point and that we all move forward together."
While the meeting was not as contentious as a similar event in Crossmaglen in November, when members of Sinn Féin openly accused the Quinn campaign of manipulating the family for political ends, there were a handful of dissenting voices.
Two speakers accused the campaign of fostering intimidation of people suspected of being involved in the murder. The audience included senior members of the south Armagh IRA, and there was a heavy police presence both in the town and around the hotel.
Gardaí handed out leaflets requesting assistance with their investigation and asked for any information about a white Hiace or Nissan van which they believe was used by the murder gang.
Among the pro-Quinn supporters, who were in the clear majority, Sinn Féin's Mr Murphy came in for repeated criticism.
Mr Ó Caoláin appealed to the Quinns to meet Mr Murphy but committee member Seamus Bellew said no such meeting would happen until Mr Murphy publicly withdrew the allegation Paul was involved in criminality.
In his report to the meeting, Mr Bellew said the first of the campaign's objectives was achieved in December when Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said there was no evidence Mr Quinn was involved in criminality. He said that neither the British nor Irish governments nor the respective police forces had ruled out the involvement of members of the IRA in the murder. "Conor Murphy aside, the whole country knows now what this was about," he told the meeting.
"Now that the de-politicisation of Paul Quinn's murder is almost complete, we want to focus all our energies on getting people to co-operate with the Garda and the police investigation."
All the TDs who spoke urged anyone with information to contact the relevant authorities. These included Fianna Fáil's Margaret Conlon, Dr Rory O'Hanlon and Seamus Kirk, and Fine Gael's Seymour Crawford.
Paul's father, Stephen Quinn, told the meeting his family was not being manipulated for political ends and denied the campaign had a political agenda. "We are not anti anybody or anti any party. We are anti murder and anti murderers."