Three loyalists are being questioned about last night's killing
of two men in a bar in Poyntzpass, County Armagh.
Damien Trainor, a Catholic and his lifelong friend Philip
Allen, a Protestant, were shot dead by two men wearing
balaclavas shortly after 9.00 p.m. The families of the victims
were this morning visited jointly by local MP Seamus
Mallon of the SDLP and David Trimble of the Ulster
Unionist Party.
Speaking in the Dail this morning, the Taoiseach, Mr Bertie
Ahern, warned that further attempts to destroy the peace
process could be planned. "Unfortunately, as sure as we
are here talking about these issues this morning, there are
others somewhere else working out their next moves - that
is the brutal reality of these things."
Two shot dead
in Co Armagh
Two men, a Catholic and a Protestant, who were lifelong
friends, were shot dead in a pub in the quiet Co Armagh
village of Poyntzpass last night. Two other men were
wounded, although their injuries were said not to be
life-threatening.
The scene outside the Railway Bar in
Poyntzpass, Co. Armagh last night following the killings.
Photograph: Pacemaker
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Poyntzpass murders seen as
loyalist response to bombings
Anti-peace process loyalist and republican paramilitaries
are becoming embroiled in a sectarian battle in the area
formerly known as the Murder Triangle. Last night's gun
attack on a Catholic bar in Poyntzpass is the expected
loyalist response to last week's republican bomb attacks on
the mainly Protestant towns of Portadown and Moira,
writes Jim Cusack, Security Correspondent.
(C) 1998 Irish Times |