It would appear very unlikely that the Continuity IRA had anything to do with last Friday's shooting at the Regency Hotel in Dublin. A statement to the BBC yesterday, pertaining to be from the organisation, claimed responsibility for the high profile shooting which left David Byrne dead.
That statement was treated with initial scepticism and now it would appear that scepticism was entirely justified given that a conflicting statement has denied any republican involvement. That second statement would appear much more likely to be true given the subsequent shooting of Eddie Hutch in Dublin last night.
However, that didn't stop the Daily Record from taking one hell of a jump and managing to include Anthony Stokes in all of this. Top of the Scottish newspaper's 'Most Read' section today is a story going by the headline 'IRA murder at boxing weigh-in was revenge for slaying of terrorist pal of Celtic star Anthony Stokes'.
It would be fair to suggest the Record is not usually the newspaper of choice around Parkhead and it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to suggest that the linking of Celtic and Stokes to an alleged IRA murder (that appears certain not to be an IRA murder) is not going down well with Celtic fans in Scotland.
@Zoddub @Rachel_Lynchx @Daily_Record And an apology for trying to link my football club. #GutterPress
— GGW (@glasgowsgreenw) February 9, 2016
@Daily_Record Holy shit,shoe horn celtic in anyway you can.
— J.Amno1 (@4jamno1) February 9, 2016
@Daily_Record cant help themselves 😢 no hope moving away from sectarianism, when journalists continue to print such tripe. #DailyRag #shoddy
— MARKIBH🍀Y©️ #45🏴 (@markibhoy13) February 9, 2016
@RuairiLynch2 @bigronni3 @Daily_Record Never let the truth get in the way of a Sevco pleasing story. pick up the gaunlet #RGrayHT
— Gerry Keegan (@gerrykeegan56) February 9, 2016
@Daily_Record disgraceful headline. Completely false
— Kearnsy (@Kearnsybhoy) February 9, 2016
Things really do snowball along those lines for quite a bit longer but it's easy to see why Celtic fans are less than chuffed with very tenuous links between Stokes and the killing of David Byrne.
It must be stated that Stokes has been reprimanded by Celtic in the past after being photographed at an event in honour of Alan Ryan but to go from there to somehow managing to squeeze him into a story (which would appear to be false) about a Dublin murder is stretching things in the extreme.
