The suspect police were chiefly looking for on both sides of the Border in connection with the murder of 63-year-old Bernard McGinley in Newtownbutler, Co Fermanagh has been arrested by the PSNI in Belfast.
The 46-year-old man was taken to a PSNI station for questioning after he was arrested in Belfast on Wednesday.
It is understood there were intense PSNI and Garda efforts since Mr McGinley’s fatal shooting last week to persuade the chief suspect to voluntarily give himself over to the police. It is also understood that form of negotiation resulted in the suspect handing himself over to the PSNI on Wednesday.
Detective Chief Inspector Una Jennings, who is leading the investigation, said “police enquiries are continuing”.
Mr McGinley from Athlone died after he was shot on Wednesday, February 11th, outside the Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception in Newtownbutler.
He was one of about 40 guests at the wedding of two young people from the Traveller community, 17-year-old Matilda McGinley from Tallaght in Dublin and 16-year-old Jimmy Connors from the midlands.
A second guest aged in his 30s was wounded during the incident but his injuries were not life-threatening.
Before the shooting, which happened as the bride was about to walk down the aisl, the local parish priest Rev Michael King intervened to try to stop an altercation between a group of men including Mr McGinley, during which there was some “kicking and thumping”.
That argument stopped briefly but re-erupted as the wedding service was about to begin, culminating in the shooting.
At the time of the killing the PSNI said it knew who fired the fatal shot or shots. Det Chief Insp Jennings said in the wake of the shooting: “It would be better for all concerned if they made themselves available to police as soon as possible so that we can build a complete picture of what happened and the background to those tragic events.”
The funeral of Mr McGinley, who was a member of the traveller community, took place on Monday. He was originally from Athlone and he lived in Co Longford.
