Adams meets McCartney family to discuss their fight for justice
Mr Adams said he met the sisters, partner, and father of the forklift driver who was beaten and stabbed in a pub row over three weeks ago.
The Sinn Féin president said of the hour-long meeting: “We had a very thorough and constructive engagement on the family’s search for justice and truth, we remain on contact.
“There is an onus on us to do everything we can to bring closure to this family, to have those responsible for their brother’s death to be brought to justice.”
Mr Adams was speaking in Dublin at the launch of a campaign to urge the Government to prepare a Green Paper discussion document on Irish unity.
The initiative, which will seek support across Ireland and abroad, calls for a Minister of State to be appointed and elected representatives from Northern Ireland to sit in the Dáil and Seanad.
Mr Adams added that he was told that up to 70 people had already come forward with information, and up to 21 this week.
“The key is to get the family to where the family want to be.
“We’re trying to bring about a situation where they find closure. Obviously, Robert can’t be brought back but theirs is a legitimate and just call. It’s the patriotic duty of everybody to help the McCartney family.
“We can only do our very best. Sinn Féin will not be found wanting.”
Mr McCartney’s four sisters, Catherine, Clare, Donna and Gemma, and his partner, Bridgeen, met Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern in Dublin on Wednesday.
Mr Ahern assured them that Mr McCartney’s death would remain high on the agenda during future Northern Ireland peace process discussions with Sinn Féin and the British Government.
The McCartney family also met political party leaders in Dublin, including Sinn Féin’s Dáil chief Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin.
Father of two Mr McCartney was allegedly murdered by members of the IRA outside a Belfast pub on January 30 and more than 70 witnesses have so far failed to provide information to progress a Police Service of Northern Ireland investigation.
A newspaper opinion poll yesterday showed that public support for the Sinn Féin party was relatively unchanged but that Mr Adams’s popularity had plummeted by 20% in three months.
The poll was taken last Tuesday and Wednesday across all constituencies and took into account the Northern Bank robbery, recent IRA-linked money laundering raids and the McCartney murder.
Mr Adams called on the Irish Government to create a system of creative and positive dialogue on the Northern Ireland process which he said was absent at the moment.
He said: “We have to rebuild the peace process. Let there be no doubt about its spiral downwards.”
