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
Tomás Mac Giolla at the local national school in Nenagh before completing his secondary education at St. Flannan's College, Ennis, County Clare. It was while at St. Flannan's that he changed to using the Irish language version of his name. He won a scholarship to University College Dublin where he qualified with a Bachelor of Arts degree, followed by a degree in Commerce. A qualified accountant, Mac Giolla was employed by the Irish Electricity Supply Board from 1947 until he went into full-time politics in 1977. In his early life Mac Giolla was an active republican. He joined Sinn Féin and the Irish