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
Belfast West (Dáil constituency) into three single-member constituencies, Belfast Falls, Belfast St Anne's and Belfast Woodvale. In 1921 the area was predominantly Unionist, with the party winning three seats. The Nationalists won the remaining seat (the only non Unionist one in Belfast). Sinn Féin's combined vote did not amount to a quota of more than one-fifth of the ballots. Thomas Burn was a member of the Ulster Unionist Labour Association. He sat in the United Kingdom House of Commons as a Labour Unionist. Joe Devlin, the Nationalist leader, was also elected for Antrim. Although he was more associated with Belfast and preferred to represent