A house belonging to a former IRA member, Mr Eamon Collins, was destroyed by fire early yesterday. Police are investigating the cause of the blaze at the family home in Camlough, south Armagh, which was uninhabited at the time.
Mr Collins, who is now opposed to paramilitary violence, has been a leading critic of the "Real IRA". His criticism has been particularly directed at a former quartermaster-general of the IRA, now believed to be a prominent member of the "Real IRA".
A former IRA activist in Newry, Mr Collins was acquitted of five charges of murder and other serious charges in 1987. Like two other former IRA members, Mr Sean O'Callaghan and Mr Martin McGartland, Mr Collins has written a book about his experiences in the IRA.
Mr Collins was made an intelligence officer but has claimed he became disillusioned with the IRA campaign during the late 1980s. He was arrested after an IRA mortar attack on Newry RUC station in 1985. After five days of questioning he turned "supergrass" and made detailed statements describing three murders.
His evidence led to the arrest of 50 IRA men in south Armagh and south Down. However, he later retracted these statements, claiming that they had been made under police duress, and the men were released due to lack of evidence.
Smoke was seen coming from the Collins family home shortly before 4 a.m. yesterday and the building was well alight by the time fire crews arrived. Renovation work was being carried out on the house.
A local SDLP councillor, Mr Stephen McGinn, said yesterday that it would be "fair enough" to say that there was an "undertone" of bad feeling towards Mr Collins from some elements.
Meanwhile, a shop in Portadown has been damaged in a blast-bomb attack. The porch of the grocery shop in West Street was extensively burned and there was some smoke damage to the interior.
The alert was raised at about 3 a.m. on Thursday and the fire was quickly extinguished. The remains of a blast-bomb were recovered at the scene.