McCartney sisters to give Bush murder file

THE family of murdered Belfast father-of-two Robert McCartney will hand over a dossier on his killing to US President George Bush when they meet him in the White House tomorrow.

As they prepared to take their campaign to force Mr McCartney’s killers into the courts, his sisters Paula, Catherine, Gemma, Claire and Donna and his partner Bridgeen Hagans have compiled a document for the President on the events leading to, and following, their brother’s murder.

Catherine McCartney said before she left Dublin yesterday: “We will give President Bush the dossier when we meet him at the St Patrick’s Day event in the White House.

“Basically it details everything that has happened since January 30, the events leading to Robert’s murder, the people involved and events since. We are very focused on what we are trying to achieve. We want justice for our brother.”

The McCartney sisters will arrive in Washington to a huge blaze of publicity as they prepare to meet some of the most prominent politicians in the US.

Those they will have talks with include Senators Hillary Clinton and Edward Kennedy, Congressman Richie Neal and President Bush’s special adviser on Northern Ireland, Ambassador Mitchell Reiss.

The family will also attend a number of major St Patrick’s Day events involving politicians and leading members of the Irish American community such as the American Ireland Fund Dinner, the Northern Ireland Bureau’s reception and the Irish Embassy reception.

The IRA has expelled three members following the January 30 murder and the subsequent cover-up.

Sinn Féin has also suspended seven members and in recent days it has emerged that Assembly election candidate Cora Groogan, former councillor Sean Hayes and local government candidate Deirdre Hargey were also in the bar where Mr McCartney had been drinking before his murder.

All three have given statements to their solicitors which have been passed on to the office of Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan.

In a series of statements, Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams has called on republicans to help the McCartney family’s quest for truth and justice and said that if he had been in the bar, he would have passed on what information he had about events leading up to the killing and the wounding of Mr McCartney’s friend, Brendan Devine.

The McCartney family’s dogged determination to force his killers and those involved in the cover-up into court has put pressure on the republican movement to wind down the IRA.

Mr Adams and other Northern Ireland politicians will not take part in the White House’s St Patrick’s Day celebrations or the Speaker’s lunch on Capitol Hill.