Print

Mail

wiki links

Murder of Catholics spark angry protests against the IRA in republican heartland

Sinn Fein chief negotiator Martin McGuinness delivers his opening address to the Sinn Fein annual conference in Dublin, Friday. PHOTO: AP

The IRA was on Friday under unprecedented pressure from within its own heartlands, with two more Catholic families coming forward to claim rogue members had killed their sons and intimidated them into silence.

As Sinn Fein began its party conference last night, it was struggling to limit the damage done by the alleged IRA murder of Robert McCartney in Belfast and the subsequent cover-up.

In his opening speech, Martin McGuinness, the party's chief negotiator, said he regretted IRA volunteers' part in the murder -- the first clear admission of IRA involvement.

McGuinness said: "I am both outraged and saddened at the involvement of a small number of IRA volunteers in the brutal killing of Robert McCartney in Belfast four weeks ago. The murder of Robert McCartney was wrong, and let me be absolutely clear, this was a grievous crime."

But another revolt has broken out against the iron grip of the "peacetime paramilitaries" in Derry's Bogside, the most sacred of all republican strongholds.

Yards from where the first civilians were shot by the British army on Bloody Sunday, protesters gathered by candlelight to demand justice for another young Catholic father who they claim was stabbed to death by an IRA member.

James McGinley, 23, a handyman, was stabbed through the heart with a 30cm dagger 16 months ago after an exchange of words with a well-known republican "hardman," who families claim is responsible for a string of punishment beatings across the city. Bart Fisher, 43, was last week sentenced to three years for McGinley's manslaughter. The McGinley family said they had been threatened by the IRA after being summoned to meetings during the trial, and said IRA men packed the court to put pressure on them and the jury.

Insult was added to injury, they said, when Fisher, convicted and awaiting sentencing, was filmed walking behind the Sinn Fein leaders Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness wearing an earpiece at this year's Bloody Sunday commemoration in the city.

In further intriguing twist, some IRA members allegedly involved in the murder of Robert McCartney later that evening in Belfast were also at the commemoration.

The McGinley family have now joined forces with the McCartney sisters in their quest for the IRA to expel its rogue members. After meeting the McCartneys in Belfast, they said that they would take their Justice For Jimmy campaign to the Irish and British governments.

Adams also addressed Sinn Fein's centenary conference as the party reels from its worst crisis for a decade, in the wake not only of the McCartney murder and allegations that the IRA stole £26.5 million from the Northern Bank.
This story has been viewed 2148 times.