McCartney killers should be ‘patriotic’ and give themselves up, family tells rally

THE killers of Belfast father-of-two Robert McCartney should do the patriotic and honourable thing by handing themselves in, his family told a rally yesterday.

The sisters of Mr McCartney, who was beaten and stabbed last month during a brawl in a Belfast bar in an attack blamed on IRA members, received a warm ovation from hundreds of people who gathered in the nationalist Short Strand to back their campaign for justice.

The family carried placards emblazoned with the slogans ‘Murdered - who’s next?’ and ‘Where’s my daddy?’ and were cheered as they prepared to address the rally.

Among those who attended were Sinn Féin’s South Belfast Assembly member Alex Maskey and councillor Joe O’Donnell.

Nationalist SDLP deputy leader Dr Alastair McDonnell also turned up to hear Mr McCartney’s sister Paula and Bloody Sunday campaigner Eamonn McCann speak.

Paula McCartney told the crowd: “Without the support of this community and others, we believe that our cry for justice would have gone unheeded like so many others.

“We hope and pray over the coming days and weeks those responsible for Robert’s murder and in the cover and clean-up operation will do the patriotic and right thing and hand themselves over and tell all they know truthfully.

“If not, they should be pressurised to do so.

“If these men walk free from this, then everyone in Ireland should fear the consequences. Justice must be done.”

On Friday, the IRA announced it had expelled three of its members after an internal investigation into the fatal attack on Mr McCartney at Magenniss’s Bar in Belfast City Centre.

The Provisionals said one of the three had gone to a solicitor to make a statement after the incident, while the others had been asked to take responsibility.

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams also said yesterday had he been in the bar, he would have gone to a lawyer with information.

However, Sinn Féin has not asked people to go to the police because the party does not support the police service.

The McCartney family have insisted up to 20 people hold the key to getting the truth about Robert’s murder and they want a case to go before court.

Paula McCartney told the rally her family would do everything in its power to get justice for her brother.

“No matter how long it takes and wherever it takes us, only when justice has been achieved will we feel that humanity and dignity has been restored and we, the people, can be free of being murdered by those who claim to work in our name,” she said.

“We ask you to support us in this struggle - justice for Robert.”

Mr McCann compared the cover-up of Mr McCartney’s murder to attempts by the British Army to cover up what happened on Bloody Sunday. The civil rights campaigner and journalist noted that the murder had coincided with the anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Derry during which 14 civilians were shot dead by soldiers.

He told the rally: “We are told, and I believe, that some of those directly involved in the murder of Robert McCartney had come from marching in Derry demanding justice for the Bloody Sunday families.

“How dare they? The hardest thing that I can say about them is that they have brought themselves and the organisation which apparently some of them were a part, they have brought themselves to the level of the British paratroopers in the Bogside. “What an irony that is.”

Mr McCann said it would be hypocritical for those who demanded justice for the Bloody Sunday families not to also press for justice for Mr McCartney’s family.

He said the family’s campaign was not intended to be divisive nor was it directed at any particular party.

“It is a positive campaign for justice, a continuation of a campaign which has had nobility on its side down through the years,” he said.

The campaigner added that unless they achieved justice for Mr McCartney’s family, it would cast a long, dark shadow on all other campaigns down through the years.”