Amid a blaze of publicity the five sisters and fiancee of murdered Belfast man Robert McCartney will today take their campaign for justice to Irish America's most high-profile leaders in Washington.
After weeks of lobbying the IRA and Sinn Fein, the family arrived in Washington vowing to dispel any romantic vision there exists in the US of the situation in Northern Ireland.
No-one has been charged over Robert McCartney's killing on January 30 thoutside a Belfast city centre pub. The family plan to present President George W Bush with a dossier containing details of the attack and what they see as efforts by Republicans to thwart a full investigation.
The McCartneys will today meet Mitchell Reiss, the US envoy to Northern Ireland, senators Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton and Northern Ireland secretary Paul Murphy as well as leading politicians at an American Ireland fund-raising dinner.
They have also been invited to attend an ad hoc committee on Northern Ireland human rights, and a reception hosted by the Northern Ireland Bureau.
"We will be telling the story of Robert and highlighting that the case started off with what we thought was intimidation but has now taken a sincere twist into an area of secrecy," said one of the sisters, Catherine McCartney.
The family said the trip to Washington was by no means the last throw of the dice, assuring supporters they had other initiatives in place for their arrival back in Belfast.
Meanwhile former Deputy First Minister Seamus Mallon attacked British Prime Minister Tony Blair's "duplicitous approach" to negotiations in Northern Ireland.
Mr Mallon, former deputy leader of the SDLP, said Mr Blair "acted in bad faith" by making under-the-table deals with Sinn Fein while ignoring the SDLP and Ulster Unionists.
Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, the 68-year-old MP for Newry and Armagh said the British government's approach to the North had "wiped out" the middle ground, catering instead for extremists.
He said: "The centre parties acted in good faith only to discover weeks or months later that the governments were not acting in good faith.
"You cannot negotiate on that basis, with that fault line. There are elements of skill in negotiation, but if you give your word you keep it."