Quoting from Ed Moloney's Secret History of the IRA in a January 2005 speech, justice minister Michael McDowell alleged that the IRA were responsible for Kerr's killing.

»On the morning of 7 June, 1996 Detective Garda Jerry McCabe was shot dead in the passenger seat of an unmarked garda car by members of the IRA during a raid on a post office in Adare, Co Limerick.

»PSNI detectives and the family of 24-year-old Gareth O'Connor, whose body was found in the Newry canal last June, believe he was killed by the IRA, although the group denied any involvement.

The father of two had been missing for two years from his home in Armagh. His family has called for all the bodies of the disappeared to be recovered.

O'Connor, a father of two, went missing as he drove to answer bail conditions in Dundalk in May 2003. He had been charged with membership of the Real IRA.

»On 20 February, 2004, dissident republican Bobby Tohill was taken from a Belfast bar. PSNI chief constable Hugh Orde said the incident was an abduction attempt and alleged that members of the Provisional IRA were behind it.

»On 26 December, 2004, over £26m was stolen from the Northern Bank in Belfast. Raiders took the family of Chris Ward and Kevin McMullan, two bank employees, hostage in order to carry out the robbery. The IRA has never been conclusively proven to have been behind the raid, and has always denied involvement, yet politicians and police on both sides of the border have maintained republican involvement. No charges have been brought.

»On 30 January, 2005, father of two Robert McCartney was killed in a knife attack by known IRA members after a fight in Magennis's Bar in the centre of Belfast.

»Dublin courier Joseph Rafferty was shot dead outside his flat in Ongar, Dublin on 12 April, 2005.

Rafferty had earlier been involved in a dispute with a man who had allegedly claimed to be in the IRA.

Rafferty's family insist that the man who fired the fatal shot is a Sinn Féin member and have accused the party of maintaining a wall of silence surrounding the killing. Sinn Féin has formally condemned the killing.

»After former Sinn Féin official Denis Donaldson, who was recently exposed as a British spy, was shot dead in Donegal on 4 April, DUP leader Ian Paisley blamed republicans for the killing, saying that "eyes will be turned towards IRA/Sinn Féin on this issue". The IRA has subsequently issued a statement denying any involvement in his killing.

»Justice minister Michael McDowell claimed that some participants in the heist of an articulated lorry carrying �?�300,000 worth of vodka outside Dunshaughlin, Co Meath last Monday are former IRA members. One of them was released under licence seven years ago under the terms of the Belfast Agreement. The man had been serving a six-year sentence for possession of explosives.