AN independent watchdog set up to monitor the activities of Loyalist and Republican groups in Northern Ireland has cleared the IRA of involvement in the October 2007 murder of South Armagh man Paul Quinn.Quinn died hours after being lured to an isolated farmhouse on the border where he was savagely beaten by a gang of up to 10 masked men. His parents immediately blamed the IRA for his murder, a claim dismissed by Sinn Fein.However, in its latest report the IMC, which includes former CIA deputy director Dick Kerr, concluded that the IRA had not been responsible for the 21-year-old's murder."We think that the attack on Paul Quinn was planned and carried out by local people and that it arose from local disputes," the IMC said."Whatever the immediate reason for the killing certain aspects of these disputes go back some time and were not unconnected with continuing illegal activity."The IMC said it believed former IRA members or associates had been among the gang who had carried out the brutal attack on Quinn, but said it could find no evidence that the IRA had ordered the killing."The fact that some local members or former members or associates of the organization were involved in the incident does not in our view justify attributing it to the IRA," said the report.SDLP assembly member Dominic Bradley said the IMC report vindicated the Quinn family's assertion that the IRA had killed their son."No one in Cullyhanna has ever claimed the Army Council ordered this murder," he said. "On the contrary, it is quite clear that the killers were disobeying the organization, but they were acting within its local structures."Welcoming the IMC's statement that the IRA was not involved in Paul Quinn's murder, Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness said, "We said from the very beginning that we did not believe the IRA was involved in the murder of Paul Quinn."Now the IMC, a body with which we fundamentally disagree, has come out and actually agreed with our analysis."The IMC concluded that the IRA remains firmly committed to politics, while Loyalist paramilitaries have not yet succeeded in moving its members away from paramilitarism and crime.The IMC reported found that the IRA has not been involved in any shootings, assaults or intimidation since September last year."The leadership remained firmly committed to the political path ... we do not believe it will be diverted from it," it said.It said the transfer of senior republicans into Sinn Fein leadership positions was "important further evidence of the move to a peaceful and democratic role."The IMC found that the efforts of Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and Ulster Defense Association (UDA) leaders to move away from paramilitarism had led to some "disgruntled" members considering forming dissident groups.A limited UVF structure remains in place to "downsize" its organization and centralize its weapons.It has taken action against individual members who had attempted to buy weapons.Despite UVF leaders attempts to distance the organization from crime individual members remain involved in drug dealing, extortion and money laundering. However the IMC report showed less success within the UDA.While accepting that the UDA leadership had tried to move its organization away from paramilitarism, it said the absence of any "effective central structure" meant the pace of change had been "far too slow" with no sign of decommissioning.