IRSP rejects calls for disbandment

THE Irish Republican Socialist Party, which is linked to the mainstream INLA, has rejected a call for its disbandment

THE Irish Republican Socialist Party, which is linked to the mainstream INLA, has rejected a call for its disbandment. A party spokesman, Mr Kevin McQuillan, dismissed a statement from a member of the former GHQ faction which urge nationalists and republicans to use their influence force the disbandment of the party.

The statement was issued by a man claiming to be a member of the GHQ faction, which had been local to the former INLA leader, Hugh Torney, who was murdered in Lurgan last week. The faction was stood down on Monday night.

Mr McQuillan said that no merit could be attached to an "anonymous" call for the IRSP to abandon politics. Neither did he expect that the INLA would be paying any regard to a call from Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, the Sinn Fein chairman, for it to disband.