IRA shooting McCartney killers 'unacceptable' to SF

“Sinn Féin’s position on shooting is very clear, they should not happen and the IRA has accepted and supports the family on this.”

He said the McCartney family did not want a shooting to take place and the IRA did not do it.

Mr Kelly added: “Whatever people think of the the IRA they have their own disciplinary code or whatever. In this case they said this to the family and did not act on it – that is a changed situation in itself.”

Elsewhere there was condemnation across the board from politicians who said the IRA was still wedded to its violent past.

Democratic Unionist Party leader the Rev. Ian Paisley said the offer to shoot was the kind of “so-called justice” the IRA was used to dispensing.

“It is their declared intent to murder. The Sinn Féin/IRA machine has murdered and maimed the citizens of Northern Ireland for 35 years,” said Mr Paisley.

The offer to shoot those responsible for the murder of Mr McCartney confirmed again that “terrorism is the only stock and trade of Sinn Féin/IRA,” he said.

“Their intention to terrorise is as clear today as the day they were formed. The Sinn Féin/IRA commitment to terror and criminality is total,” said Mr Paisley.

And he said when the offer to murder was considered, people needed to remember those who were named by the Irish Government as leaders of the IRA.

Irish Justice Minister Michael McDowell recently named Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness as IRA army council leaders.

“It is time for the government to arrest Sinn Féin/ IRA leaders,” said Mr Paisley.

The IRA statement was branded as appalling by the Ulster Unionist Party which said it showed the Provisionals had learned nothing over the recent weeks.

Senior party member Sir Reg Empey, MLA, said: “The fact that this group is offering murder as a form of justice should be the wake-up call that the governments urgently need.

“These are the people that they would have democrats share power with.”

Sir Reg added that the latest statement proved unequivocally how far Northern Ireland was from the completion it had been calling for. Only the intervention of the McCartneys had prevented further murders.

“It is a sick and desperate statement that will be completely beyond sense to all rational human beings,” he added.

The Alliance Party’s Naomi Long, MLA, said the “barbaric and sickening offer” to shoot the men “shows that the IRA is still wedded to the idea of street ‘justice’ and human rights abuses as a means of resolving issues".

She said the IRA kept making offers that did not constitute natural justice and it was a real credit to the McCartney sisters that they had rejected the outrageous offer.

“Whatever flaws republicans believe exist in the judicial system, at least there is always the right to a trial before a jury and the option of appeal.

“The IRA’s perverse form of justice offers none of that, two wrongs do not make a right.”

If the IRA wanted the witnesses to feel comfortable going to the police, why didn’t they lead by example, she asked.

“They know who the killers are and if they are genuine in their support of the McCartneys and want to see justice done and convictions secured, they should give whatever information they have that could help the family to the PSNI,” she said.

The SDLP MP Eddie McGrady said he was appalled by the IRA’s words.

“This is gun law at its worst and this community cannot afford to let itself slide into this abyss of unknown people taking the law into their own hands by way of so called, so called, justice.”

He said if this was the type of policing the IRA and Sinn Féin were talking about for the future “may God help us all.”

Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy said he was appalled by the IRA statement.

“Any sort of punishment ought to come through the courts, through due process of the law. There is no place for arbitrary justice, there is no place for kangaroo courts or capital punishment in this country,” he said.

Mr Murphy said there was no place for those who signed up for the Good Friday Agreement for “the kind of arbitrary justice and murder that has been suggested here.”

Irish Justice Minister Michael McDowell described the IRA statement as bizarre and said it confirmed suspicions that the Provisional movement was in freefall.

In a briefing to reporters tonight, he said: “It’s the first time that I have seen them admit to a willingness to kill.

“Their denials of punishment beatings and bank robberiess just go out the window after this.

“It just shows how deep their crisis is. It signifies a serious freefall within the Provisional movement.

“It’s bizarre. It’s astonishing. What are these people thinking? What kind of a world are these people living in? They’re clearly in a very strange place.”

Mr McDowell said he hadn’t yet spoken to the Taoiseach on the statement but added: “I’ve no doubt that he is as shocked as I am.”

The main opposition party Fine Gael said the IRA had issued an unprecedented volume of public statements about the murder of Robert McCartney but but there had been no witness statements from those involved.

Party leader Enda Kenny said: “It also represents yet another attempt by the provisional movement to minimise the consequences for its members by suggesting that only four people were involved.”

Irish Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte said the IRA statement was a bizarre development which showed the IRA had learned nothing from the murder of Robert McCartney.

“It shows that the IRA is still committed to the law of the gun, rather than the rule of law. It shows that the IRA continues to regard itself as a superior authority to the courts,” he said.

He said the IRA clearly believed that the McCartney family would accept the “obscene offer” to kill those responsible for their brother’s death, when it was clear that they wanted a conviction through the courts.

Irish Green Party leader Trevor Sargent said that the IRA should comply with the wishes of the McCartney family rather than carrying out more shootings.

“Sinn Féin and the IRA cannot continue to live in a dual reality where they cherry pick those aspects of democracy that they find acceptable while continuing with their Armalite strategy,” he said.