Catholic family's campaign for justice pressures Sinn Fein, IRA

Published: 2005-03-09

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (CNS) -- A Catholic family's campaign for justice has put increasing pressure on the Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein and its military wing, the outlawed Irish Republican Army. As pressure escalated, family members of murdered Catholic Robert McCartney said they have been invited to the White House for St. Patrick's Day. McCartney, 33, a forklift driver from the small Catholic enclave of Short Strand in Belfast, was stabbed to death after a pub brawl Jan. 30. McCartney's five sisters and his fiancee maintain that more than 70 people witnessed the incident, but because the murder involved IRA members witnesses are afraid to give evidence to police. Family members says the IRA is involved in a cover-up, and they rejected an IRA offer to shoot those involved in the killing. They say they want those responsible for the murder to be tried in a court of law. The IRA says it has expelled three people involved in the killing.

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