Brutal killing shows ONH ceasefire is pure fantasy

Kieran Wylie’s murder by the dissident republican ONH (Oglaigh na heireann) gang should finally dispel any notion that it is on ceasefire.

The organisation — born out of a split in the Real IRA a decade ago — declared an end to its violent campaign in January 2018.

Crucially though, the announcement was directed only at what it termed “the British state”.

Since then ONH has been involved in several gun attacks within the communities where its members live, with Sunday night’s murder of Kieran Wylie in west Belfast being the latest.

Wylie was, for a time, a prominent ONH member and would often be seen in the company of its leaders. A fallout with them over allegations he was an informant was the catalyst for his killing.

Graffiti branding him a “tout” recently appeared on walls near his home in the Lenadoon estate.

Wylie, a former pub doorman and taxi driver originally from the Turf Lodge area, strongly denied the claims and was resolute about not being forced out of west Belfast by the violent dissident republicans he previously called friends.

This determination would be his downfall, with masked men forcing their way inside the 57-year-old’s home and shooting him at close range in front of his two terrified daughters.

The murder will lead to calls for the government to reassess the bona fides of ONH’S ceasefire. Police are already on record as saying the organisation played a role in the killing of drug baron Jim Donegan in west Belfast at the end of 2018.

It has also carried out several “punishment” shootings in the past two years.

This was while the Conflict Resolution Services Ireland charity to which ONH had direct links was pocketing more than £350,000 in grants and donations.

That cash-flow has dried up somewhat since the relationship, first revealed by the Sunday Life newspaper four years ago, became more widely known.

If the government is really serious about trying to end paramilitarism — Stormont and Westminster have pledged £50m of public money to do just that — then this twin-track approach of condemning gun gangs while giving succour to their arms-length bodies needs to end.

The murder of Kieran Wylie should be the final nail in the coffin of that disastrous policy.