Refusing to back down

LITTLE Brandon Hagans hasn’t seen his daddy in a year, and the hurt of apparent abandonment torments his young mind.

But unknown to the confused and heartbroken three-year-old, his father did not just buckle under domestic responsibilities and take off.

Robert McCartney, 33, was stabbed to death outside a Belfast city centre bar in a merciless attack that plunged the IRA and Sinn Féin leadership deep into crisis.