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
Aodán Mac Póilin Aodán Mac Póilin Aodán Mac Póilin (1948 – 29 December 2016) was an Irish language activist in Northern Ireland. Aodán grew up on the Norfolk Road in west Belfast with his two sisters, his mother who was an Irish speaker and his father who worked as a civil servant. He attended the New University of Ulster from which he obtained a BA (Hons) and an M.Phil. in Irish studies. He helped to establish the Shaw's Road Irish-speaking community where he and his wife Áine lived. He was a teacher for a period and then became Director of the ULTACH Trust