Northern Ireland:

Horrific murder enrages local community

THOUSANDS OF people have attended protest vigils in Catholic working-class areas of Belfast over the last two weeks. It has not been against the British state or loyalist attacks or for justice and equality but against the republican movement.

The protesters accuse the IRA of protecting the killers of Robert McCartney, who came from the Short Strand, a working-class, Catholic enclave in largely Protestant East Belfast.

On 30 January, Robert McCartney was surrounded and stabbed to death by a gang outside a city centre bar. The attackers allegedly included a high-ranking IRA officer and several other IRA members.

The incident began as a pub row but after the killing the bar was cleaned up and none of the estimated 70 people who witnessed the attack has spoken to the police. However, Robert McCartney's family spoke out publicly, demanding that the killers be brought to justice. They condemn the IRA for protecting the killers and held protest vigils.

Reflecting the intense pressure on the republican movement from Catholic working-class areas, the IRA made a statement, urging Robert's killers to take responsibility for their actions. Gerry Adams and other Sinn Fein leaders condemned the killing. Last week, the IRA expelled three of its members, including a former high-ranking IRA member in Belfast.

However, the McCartney family demand that all 12 people involved in the killing should face justice. Joe Higgins, Socialist Party TD (Member of the Irish Parliament), for Dublin West, recently spoke out in Dail Eireann (the Irish Parliament) in support of the Belfast community protests.

Joe also highlighted the hypocritical role of the British and Irish governments, which have no genuine interest in allowing working class communities, Catholic and Protestant, to "live in an atmosphere where democratic, human and political rights are respected and guaranteed".`

THE MURDER of Robert McCartney, and subsequent attempts at a cover-up by members of the IRA in Belfast, have provoked widespread anger.

Gary Mulcahy, Belfast

What made this murder so gruesome was the style in which the killers 'forensically' cleaned up the bar, destroyed security video tape and threatened the witnesses in the bar not to report the murder or give evidence.

Not one witness has come forward with evidence yet. People feel too intimidated to come forward with information, even though it is public knowledge who carried out the murder. Fearful in the run-up to elections in May, Sinn Fein and the IRA have come under massive pressure in Catholic working-class communities, especially in the Short Strand where the McCartneys live.

The McCartney family have courageously spoken out and mobilised the community's support. On 28 February, members of the Socialist Party together with Joe Higgins met the family in Belfast to discuss mobilising people in both Catholic and Protestant working-class communities against the control of the paramilitary thugs.

The Socialist Party is standing in local elections in the Short Strand and the Markets areas in May and will be making opposition to paramilitaries a central part of our campaign.

Socialist Party TD backs McCartney family

SOCIALIST PARTY TD Joe Higgins spoke in the Dail (Ireland's parliament) on 23 February during questions to the Taoiseach (prime minister) and demanded justice for the McCartney family after Robert McCartney had been murdered.

Joe called for local communities in both Catholic and Protestant areas to throw the sectarians aside.

"I urge the community, in conjunction with the McCartney family, to convene its own independent mass meeting, give mass protection to the witnesses to this bestial murder, and mobilise community power to break the grip of intimidation and remove the killers from its midst by securing their trial and conviction.

"I call on the real power in Northern Ireland, the salt of the earth, working-class people to mobilise independently, throw the sectarians aside and in this way deliver justice for Robert McCartney and his family. This will also lay the basis for an alternative society where their real needs are met rather than being subjected to sectarian monsters."

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Northern Ireland: Horrific murder enrages local community

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