McCartney murder ‘a case of collusion’ says Ahern
Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern tonight accused the IRA of collusion in protecting the killers of Belfast man Robert McCartney and of oppressing his family and local community.
Ahern told a Dáil debate that witnesses must fully co-operate with the PSNI before truth and justice can be achieved.
Speaking on a Fine Gael private motion, Mr Ahern said: “The case of Robert McCartney is a case of collusion. To avoid justice. To escape the truth. To protect the killers.
“Until the killers are brought before the courts, no member of the Provisional movement can utter the words truth or justice with any credibility.”
An IRA mob are believed to have knifed the father-of-two to death outside a Belfast city pub on January 30 and later cleaned up the crime scene and intimidated witnesses.
The victim’s sisters and partner have waged a courageous campaign against the IRA to seek truth and justice.
Fine Gael said some of the 12 people involved in the murder were IRA members and others were Sinn Féin activists who played important roles in the Assembly election campaign for Alex Maskey in November 2003.
In a hard-hitting address, Enda Kenny added: “These people carried out a truly brutal crime which has been compared to the notorious activities of the Shankill Butchers.
“It was a savage murder of a totally innocent man and any attempt to dilute the seriousness of what happened must be completely rejected.”
Mr Kenny also claimed that Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams was in the company of one of the murderers at the funeral of IRA veteran Joe Cahill in July 2004.
The Labour party said the McCartney murder had proved that the IRA was now the oppressor, not the British.
Party leader Pat Rabbitte said: “What the McCartney family and the people of the Short Strand want is a police investigation, a Crown prosecution and a trial in a court of law.
“They want normal lives and normal freedoms – freedom from the demands of swaggering louts and wide boys and all those other parasites that thrive on abnormality, crisis and fear.”
Earlier Sinn Féin said it broadly supported the motion but was disappointed that Fine Gael would not accept an amendment aimed at people who didn’t want to give information directly to the PSNI.
Dáil leader Caoimhghin Ó Caolain said: “The reality is that there are many within the nationalist community who for good reason do not trust the PSNI and simply will not bring forward information to them.
“This reality cannot be ignored if we are serious about delivering justice for the McCartney family.”
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