His family subsequently accused the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) of his murder, though no one has ever been convicted in relation to his death.
When he arrived at the farm, a group of some ten or more men beat him with iron and nail-studded bars for upwards of half an hour, breaking every major bone in his body.
[2] Quinn's parents, Breege and Stephen, have said that members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army's South Armagh Brigade were responsible.
An Irish Independent report of September 2007 stated:[2] The people believed locally to have been responsible for directing the murder of Paul Quinn, who had every major bone in his body broken in a prolonged beating with iron bars and pickaxe handles by nine men, are brothers, both long-serving IRA men who are heavily involved in fuel smuggling.
They are also closely associated with Thomas Murphy, the local IRA boss who holds sway over what is now a crime empire in the border area.In October 2011, his parents were featured in an RTÉ news report, stating they still believe people living locally "know all about" the murder and have called on them to go to the Garda Síochána or the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) to "get it off their chest".
[9] Describing the investigation and solving the murder as "utmost priority", Gardaí made a public appeal urging those with information to come forward, "no matter how small or insignificant" it might seem.
[20] The murder of Paul Quinn led indirectly to the discovery of the body of another victim of the Provisional IRA, Gerard Evans, a 24-year-old from Crossmaglen, who had gone missing after being kidnapped by the organisation in 1979.
In 2009, the Sunday Tribune newspaper received information from an ex-IRA member about the location of Evans' body, who stated that he had been influenced in coming forward by the circumstances of Paul Quinn's death.