Death
Eamon Collins was murdered on 27 January 1999 while walking his dogs near Barcroft Park, his home in Newry. He was stabbed and beaten so badly that police initially thought he had been hit by a car. It is presumed that he was killed by the IRA in revenge for public testimony on the activities of the organisation and in particular for his court testimony against Thomas Murphy.
The IRA denied involvement in the killing and Sinn Féin's local representative Brendan Curran denied the IRA was responsible and said that the killing was "senseless and needless". Gerry Adams said that the killing was "regrettable" but added that Mr Collins had "many enemies in many, many, many places".
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