McCartneys confronted by republican crowd

REPUBLICANS were last night accused of forcing the sisters and partner of IRA murder victim Robert McCartney to abandon a door-to-door distribution of leaflets calling for support for a vigil in his memory.

Relatives and associates of the man who allegedly ordered the killing were among those involved, according to one of Mr McCartney’s sisters, Paula.

She said: “They were screaming and shouting abuse and telling us to get out of the district.”

Paula, Gemma, Donna, a fourth sister, Clare, and Mr McCartney’s partner, Bridgeen Hagan, a mother of two, were delivering leaflets in the Short Strand area when they were confronted by a crowd.

The leaflets were calling for support for a vigil outside Magennis’s Bar in Belfast where Mr McCartney was involved in a row before he was later stabbed outside on the night of January 30.

Meanwhile, a Sinn Féin member who was in the bar on the night of the murder announced she will not contest the forthcoming local government elections.

Deirdre Hargey had been selected to run alongside former Sinn Féin Lord Mayor Alex Maskey in the Laganbank ward in south Belfast on May 5.