Sinn Féin for Justice, Equality and Law Reform Michael McDowell publicly accused three of the Sinn Féin leadership, Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness and Martin Ferris (TD for Kerry North) of being on the seven-man IRA Army Council; they later denied this. On 27 February 2005, a demonstration against the murder of Robert McCartney on 30 January 2005 was held in east Belfast. Alex Maskey, a former Sinn Féin Lord Mayor of Belfast, was told by relatives of McCartney to "hand over the 12" IRA members involved. The McCartney family, although formerly Sinn Féin voters themselves, urged witnesses to the crime to contact
History of Sinn Féin History of Sinn Féin Sinn Féin (""We Ourselves"", often mistranslated as "Ourselves Alone") is the name of an Irish political party founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith. It subsequently became a focus for various forms of Irish nationalism, especially Irish republicanism. Its splits during the Irish Civil War in 1922 and again at the beginning of the Troubles in 1969 had dramatic effects on politics in Ireland. Sinn Féin today is a republican, left-wing and secular party. The ideas that led to Sinn Féin were first propounded by the "United Irishman" newspaper and its editor, Arthur Griffith. An article by