Real IRA says it killed five people in past 13 months

THE REAL IRA has stated it was responsible for five gun killings, four of them in the South, in the past 13 months.

The Real IRA, in a statement issued through the 32 County Sovereignty Movement, named seven people it said it had killed since February 2002, alleging a drugs connection in all seven murders.

The organisation said it had also “executed drug dealers on the continent who believed they were safe, having fled the country”.

The Real IRA did not identify those it said it killed in Europe, but naming seven gun crime victims provided “some examples” of those they killed.

The most recent killing the Real IRA claimed was that of 42-year-old Seán Winters from Raheny in north Dublin. A suspected drug dealer, he was shot dead in September in Portmarnock. It said it was responsible for the murder of Colm “Colly” Owens (34) in July. From Finglas, Mr Owens, who was linked to gangland criminals, was shot in Finglas.

The Real IRA said it murdered 41-year-old Gerard Stanton, a convicted drug dealer, who was shot dead in January on leaving his home at Westlawn, off Sarsfield Road, Cork. It said it murdered 23-year-old Jason Egan in October last year. He was shot dead as he locked up a family-run newsagents in Mulhuddart in west Dublin.

It said it murdered 31-year-old Kieran Doherty in February. His body was found bound and stripped at Braehead Road in Derry. The Real IRA also said it was responsible for the murder of Mathew Burns in Castlewellan, Co Down, in February 2002, and that it murdered “Kieran Flynn”. This is understood to be 39-year-old, Kieran O’Flynn, who was shot dead in June 2001 when he went to answer a knock at the door of his home at Thorndale Estate in Dublin Hill, on Cork’s northside.

The Real IRA in a statement carried on the website of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement, said reports that it was involved in drugs and prostitution and that members of its “Dublin brigade had been stood down” were “lies”.

The most recent report of the Independent Monitoring Commission said the majority of the Real IRA’s most recent victims were “people perceived to be involved in drug dealing or other anti-social behaviour”.

It also said the Real IRA “continued to be involved in a wide range of serious crime, including extortion, robbery, ‘tiger kidnapping’, smuggling [mainly of tobacco] and fuel laundering”.