"Moment of truth approaching on Quinn Murder" - Allister tells TUV
18 March 2008
Speaking to the Central Council of Traditional Unionist Voice, meeting in Ballymena last night, Jim Allister MEP warned that over the coming month we would see determined efforts to whitewash the Paul Quinn murder and evade the political consequences which the DUP promised would flow from IRA/Sinn Fein default on total support for the rule of law.
With the IMC due to report on the killing in April, having already identified IRA involvement, Mr Allister said we could expect both maximum “behind the scenes” pressure on the IMC to fudge the issue and frenzied dancing on the point of a needle by the DUP to justify the very thing they said they’d never do, equivocate over IRA default. “We can expect Jeffrey Donaldson – though forced to concede on the Nolan Show that any IRA involvement would be enough to bring down sanctions on Sinn Fein – to lead the prevaricators and fancy footwork by running around saying “I can’t find any mention of killing Quinn in the Minute Book of the Army Council, so they didn’t really do it.” But as Lord Morrow said in the Assembly on 11 March 2008:
“One day they (Sinn Fein) will say we backed the police, the next they stand up and they pontificate and say Paul Quinn wasn't murdered by the IRA. They must be about the only people on this planet that believes that.”
There is a serious moment of truth approaching for all in the DUP, but particularly those like Lord Morrow, David Simpson, Jim Wells and William McCrea, who have properly made this wicked IRA killing a testing point. But it is not just a testing point for Sinn Fein, it is equally a testing point for the sincerity of the DUP, especially those who have espoused the truth that the IRA did indeed murder Paul Quinn. The time is fast approaching when they will have to face up to that truth, and its inevitable consequences, if their political stance is to retain any credibility. I trust, like others, they will not melt away again to take refuge in whatever fantasist pretence is spun by the power-hungry “pragmatists” who control the DUP.
As for the Army Council no one should be surprised if, as part of the maneuverings of Sinn Fein, some conjuring trick is attempted, both to prime concessions on policing & justice and divert the heat on the Quinn murder. They bought a decade of concessions and time on “now you see it, now you don’t” decommissioning. Don’t be surprised if the same trick is pulled again.”
