NI Communities Minister: I will meet family of IRA murder victim
Northern Ireland Communities Minister Deirdre Hargey has agreed to meet the family of Belfast murder victim Robert McCartney.
The father-of-two, aged 33 and from the Short Strand, was stabbed and beaten by IRA members outside Magennis’s bar in Belfast city centre in January 2005 and died the next day.
It has been reported that Ms Hargey was in Magennis’s the night the attack took place but she has said she did not see the incident.
She said: “I have always said I have fully complied with any investigation into what happened to Robert McCartney.
“I have always said that I am willing to meet with the family and if that invitation or request comes forward I will arrange that.”
The minister and former Belfast Lord Mayor has previously said she was never asked to make a statement to detectives.
Robert’s sister Catherine, another four sisters and his fiancee Bridgeen Hagans have fought a long campaign to bring his killers to justice.
They raised the issue at the European Parliament in Strasbourg and met then US president George W Bush at the White House.
