Adams urges McCartney murder witnesses to speak to PSNI

Gerry Adams today gave republicans the signal to break their silence and cooperate with the Robert McCartney murder inquiry.

With Sinn Féin facing demands to prove its new backing for policing was genuine, the party president clearly urged full support for detectives hunting the IRA gang blamed for stabbing the father-of-two outside a central Belfast pub.

The murder in January 2005 plunged the republican movement into crisis amid allegations that the killers were shielded.

Even though up to 70 people were in Magennis’s Bar on the night Mr McCartney, 33, was attacked, witnesses have so far refused to speak to police.

But after the murdered man’s sister Catherine described republican assistance with the probe as the acid test of Sinn Féin’s new decision to end generations of opposition to the force, Mr Adams responded to the challenge.

He said: “Anybody who has any information about the McCartney killing should give it to the police.”

His call marked a major advance from the party’s position at the time of the murder, when it refused to recommend contacting the police service.

It could also heighten pressure on Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists to acknowledge Sinn Féin is fit to share power with them in a new Stormont administration.

Full cooperation by republicans with the McCartney murder inquiry has been seen as one of the tests set by the DUP as it assesses the impact of Sinn Féin’s overwhelming endorsement of policing before deciding to enter a coalition government.

Earlier, Justice Minister Michael McDowell echoed Catherine McCartney’s challenge to the republican movement over the murder.

But Mr Adams hit back by insisting Mr McDowell should not be setting tests for anyone.

“This is the minister who refuses to put into place in the other jurisdiction on this island the type of accountability and mechanisms that are in place in this one.

“Mr McDowell, like Ian Paisley, is in no position to lecture or to give tests or to in any way put preconditions upon Sinn Féin.”

Mr McCartney was attacked with his friend Brendan Devine after a row inside the bar spilled outside. He was beaten and knifed to death in a nearby street.

Even though one man has been charged with his murder, the McCartney family - who drew international attention with a justice campaign that went all the way to the White House – believe at least a dozen people were involved in the assault.

Others allegedly mounted a clean-up operation inside the pub to remove any evidence.

As the Provisionals came under intense pressure at the time, the paramilitary organisation said it had expelled three members over the stabbing and even offered to shoot those involved.

Sinn Féin later suspended a number of its members.

But Ms McCartney insisted nothing less than full assistance from republicans would do.

“This is the litmus test for them,” she said.

“They have no excuses. If it was purely a policing issue for Sinn Féin that has now been removed.

“Sinn Féin members (in the bar) refused to speak to police. They had a nonsense of talking to third parties like priests, but that was fruitless.

“Police are trained to take statements, not priests.

“I want Gerry Adams to say he will encourage everybody to come forward and say they will help with the investigation into Robert’s murder.

“That will prove there was no culture of cover-up going on.”