Within three weeks, the IRA went from denying involvement in the McCartney killing to offering to shoot the members involved. Gerry Moriarty reports
The unfolding story of the Robert McCartney murder was at first a slow train coming that gradually built up a head of steam and has now crashed through the provisional republican movement's protective buffers.
There were so many witnesses to the stabbing of Robert McCartney on Sunday night, January 30th, outside Magennis's bar that it wasn't difficult for the media to glean from local sources in the Short Strand and Markets areas of Belfast the names of five people allegedly central to the killing. Yet no one has been charged. While 12 people were arrested, but then released, no one has provided testimony that could convict the killers. But the murder lit a fuse of resentment against the IRA and Sinn Féin in Robert McCartney's home area of the Short Strand.
Shortly after the killing, Sinn Féin's Alex Maskey reacted "furiously" to police follow-up searches in the Markets area. The SDLP, DUP and Ulster Unionist Party alleged that rioting was orchestrated by the IRA to protect the killers.
Maskey said of the killing: "There is a growing violent knife culture in our society, which must be condemned, and this incident is an extension of that."
The Friday after the murder, about 800 people who felt there was an entirely different motive behind the killing gathered at the Short Strand shops to stage a vigil for Robert McCartney. The following Tuesday more than 1,000 people crammed into the Catholic Church in Short Strand to show their solidarity with the McCartney family. There was no Sinn Féin figure of any seniority at the funeral Mass. PSNI detectives were present. Graffiti appeared in the Short Strand at that time saying, "PIRA scum out".
On February 11th Robert McCartney's cousin Gerard Quinn wrote a letter to the Irish News in Belfast asking, "How does murdering the innocent protector of a respected family in the local community build an Ireland of equals?" The McCartney sisters started giving media interviews in which they clearly blamed the IRA.
On February 15th John Kelly, an ex-Sinn Féin member and IRA leader at the time of the Arms Crisis in 1970, wrote in the Irish News, "Have we the nationalist/republican community exchanged a fascist and sectarian orange jackboot for an increasingly fascist and totalitarian green jackboot?" Two weeks after the murder, Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams said no one involved in Robert McCartney's murder had "acted as a republican", and that he supported the McCartneys' "quest for truth and justice".
On February 16th, the IRA, in a P O'Neill statement, said it "was not involved in the brutal killing of Robert McCartney". It added, "Those who were involved must take responsibility for their own actions which run contrary to republican ideals".
As the days unfolded, despite the interventions of Gerry Adams and the IRA, the story would not go away, and neither would the McCartneys. In various interviews the sisters - Gemma, Paula, Catherine, Donna and Clare - and Robert's partner Bridgeen welcomed the positive words from the IRA and Gerry Adams but complained that people were unwilling to provide useful evidence because of IRA intimidation. On RTÉ Radio Adams referred to the killing as "murder or manslaughter or whatever it happens to be".
The pressure mounted from Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, the British and US governments, southern and northern politicians and church leaders for republicans to deliver Robert McCartney's killers to justice in a court of law.
On Friday February 25th the IRA issued a second, this time lengthy, statement saying that it had expelled three of its members, two of them "high-ranking volunteers", who were involved in the killing. It said it would not tolerate intimidation of witnesses.
Two days later about 500 people gathered for a rally in support of the McCartneys at the Short Strand shops. Maskey appeared with some colleagues but was not universally well received. McCartney's uncle, Gerry McKay, interrupted a press conference by Maskey demanding he hand over the IRA members who "butchered my nephew".
The Irish Times and other polls showed Gerry Adams's popularity in the South dropped dramatically in the wake of the murder, the Northern Bank raid and alleged IRA money laundering, and Sinn Féin's support dipped from 11 per cent to 9 per cent.
Senior republican Gerard "Jock" Davison, one of those arrested but then released without charge, told Daily Ireland that he had a row with Robert McCartney on the day of the murder in Magennis's but "there's not a snowball's chance in hell" that he ordered the killing.
Tell your story to the "courts, not the papers", Catherine McCartney responded.
On Thursday March 3rd, the eve of the Sinn Féin ardfheis, Gerry Adams announced the suspension from the party of seven Sinn Féin members the McCartneys said were implicated in the murder.
The following day the Sinn Féin ardfheis deplored the murder of Robert McCartney. On the Saturday there was a charged atmosphere as the McCartney sisters were ushered into the RDS for Gerry Adams's keynote speech. He repeated that he would not tolerate the name of republicanism being sullied by the killers and would not give up on the issue until those responsible are made accountable.
Graffiti appeared in Short Strand saying "Jerry (sic) adams is a tout".
The sisters and Bridgeen were invited to the US for the White House St Patrick's Day function with President Bush next week.
Last Tuesday the IRA issued a third statement saying it had told the McCartneys it was prepared to "shoot" Robert's killers but that the family declined the offer. They preferred due process. While the IRA had said in its second statement that it had expelled three members allegedly involved in the killing, it said in this statement that only two IRA members were implicated.
General reaction to the statement outside republican heartlands was one of shock and outrage.
On Wednesday a 12th man was arrested by PSNI in connection with the killing. Like many of the others he went voluntarily to the police accompanied by a solicitor. He was released without charge but in this particular case "pending further inquiries" by police. The McCartneys and Hugh Orde say that despite the republican show of co-operation with the police and family, no evidence that could convict the killers has been produced.
"We're told that mostly the witnesses say nothing and just stare at the walls," says Catherine McCartney.