Public anger wrong-foots Sinn Fein

March 1, 2005

The people's revolt against the IRA gang who murdered a local man continued to grow despite Sinn Fein's attempts to defuse the crisis, with about 1000 protesters demanding the expulsion of more rogue republicans.

Robert McCartney's family led an angry protest on Sunday in the republican Short Strand area where the IRA's cover-up of his murder was compared to the lies told by the British government about the Bloody Sunday killings in the 1970s.

Despite the IRA's court martial and expulsion of three members - allegedly including the former officer commanding the Belfast brigade - the family claim at least nine others implicated in the killing are being sheltered by the organisation.

They also claimed the IRA's version of the murder outside a Belfast pub - in which Mr McCartney and a friend were beaten, stabbed and left for dead - was wrong and that a whispering campaign against the family was being conducted.

The unprecedented protest in Sinn Fein's heartland has put the party under severe pressure with Alex Maskey, the former Sinn Fein mayor of Belfast, openly confronted on the street.

Asked whether, as residents claim, two of the men involved in the clean-up after the murder had previously acted as his election workers, he said he would not comment on "falsehoods in the media".

Despite the IRA's call on Friday night that no one should be intimidated into not giving evidence, one Short Strand source said the three expelled IRA men were still considered to be under their protection.

The source said the IRA members were at their homes and one was at an IRA safe house. One of the men involved in the murder had been expelled before, but was allowed back shortly afterwards, after undergoing a punishment shooting.

The Guardian
