McCartneys win Women of the Year award

THE McCartney sisters, whose brother was stabbed to death outside a bar in Belfast almost a year ago, received the top accolade in the Irish Tatler Women of the Year Awards last night.

The award is in recognition of the sisters’ courageous and tenacious campaign for justice since their brother, a 33-year-old father of two, was killed in late January by a gang that they believe included known IRA members.

The sisters have criticised the IRA and Sinn Féin - a move almost unheard of in their working-class Catholic neighbourhood in Belfast - and accused local IRA men of intimidating witnesses to stop them going to the police.