A friend of the former IRA gunman whose murder sparked a crisis in Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government has revealed she received a bullet in the post and a sympathy card with the letters “IRA” written inside.



Martina McDonnell, 49, said the threats through the mail after Kevin McGuigan’s killing confirmed her belief that the IRA still exists, despite repeated denials by Sinn Féin politicians.

The alleged existence of the Provisional IRA and its role in killing McGuigan outside his home in the Short Strand district of east Belfast in August is central to the current crisis threatening to destabilise devolution in the region.

Unionists say ongoing alleged PIRA activities including murder is a major of breach of faith by republicans who had promised the organisation had withered away.

Denouncing those who sent the bullet and the sympathy card as “bully boys and cowards”, McDonnell said she believed they were sent to her home on Tuesday morning because she and her family had supported McGuigan’s family after his murder.

Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph, McDonnell said: “My daughter Orla opened it because she knew from the shape of it there was something inside the envelope. She was all excited, thinking it was a wee present.” A bullet fell out onto the table. It was a big bullet from a rifle. We were absolutely shocked. The sympathy card had a picture of lilies on the front. Inside, it was signed ‘IRA’ in capital letters.

“It’s very traumatic to receive something like that out of the blue. We were both really upset. We phoned the PSNI and they came and took the card and bullet away.”

McDonnell said her family would continue to support the McGuigans despite the threats. “There have been no fights, no confrontations, no rows on the street, nothing like that. But Kevin McGuigan’s sons, Teddy and Pearse, are friends with my children. They grew up together and went to the same schools. Teddy and Pearse are in our house regularly.

“When Kevin was murdered, we placed a sympathy notice in the paper and we went to his funeral. I believe our friendship with his family is why we’ve received this death threat.

“But we won’t close our door to the McGuigans. They’ve suffered a terrible loss and they will always be welcome in our home.”McDonnell’s account of the postal threats is likely to deepen unionist suspicions that in Catholic and nationalist working class areas of Northern Ireland the IRA still maintains a presence. It could also harden unionist positions on the emergency talks the British and Irish governments are holding aimed at solving the political crisis at Stormont.

Meanwhile, two men have been wounded in what appear to be paramilitary-style shootings in Newry.. The victims, who are in their 30s, were shot at separate locations on Wednesday night.

One was taken by four masked men from a house in Warrenpoint and driven to the Armagh Road where he was shot once in the leg. The other was shot after a gunman called at the door of a house in Sandys Street. Neither of the victims’ injuries are thought to be life-threatening. Police closed the Armagh Road to check for explosive devices.

Margaret Ritchie, the SDLP MP for South Down, condemned those behind both attacks. “This is a totally unwarranted act and a form of violence that belongs to past,” she said. “No one has the right to act as judge and potential executioner. This type of violence has been rejected by the vast majority of the public at the ballot box and should be consigned to the rubbish bin of history.”