Irish Republican News · February 23, 2005

Special Branch cover-up in feud killing

A police ombudsman report has found that the police Special Branch in the North withheld crucial information from detectives investigating the murder of County Down man Eoin Morley.

The victim was gunned down at his girlfriend’s home in Newry, County Down, on Easter Sunday 1990 amid tensions between the IRA and the small republican armed group, the IPLO [Irish People’s Liberation Organisation].

Relatives of Mr Morley alleged that police instigated the murder in an attempt to ignite a republican feud and refused to arrest the chief suspect.

The Ombudsman’s examination of the “anti-terrorist” unit’s files uncovered 10 separate items of information which could have revealed the killer but were never passed on to detectives.

The victim’s family appears to be vindicated in claiming the Special Branch protected the gunman.

In a statement yesterday, the victim’s mother, Eilish Morley, said she did not share the Police Ombudsman’s confidence in a “new beginning” for policing in the north.

“Mrs O’Loan has been stonewalled in her long investigation and while she speaks optimistically of a new beginning for police... these aspirations are of no comfort to the grieving mother and siblings of Eoin who was gunned down at the behest of the RUC,” she said.

“The Police Ombudsman tells me that the PSNI have reopened the murder investigation of my son.

“I have no such confidence that any such investigation will be undertaken by the Chief Constable with any seriousness or energy.”

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