Posted on 03/20/2005 8:41:04 AM PST by aculeus
BACK in Ireland, a vicious whispering campaign has begun against Robert McCartney’s partner and five sisters.
Scotland on Sunday can reveal that the women returned from Washington at the end of last week to an increasingly hostile atmosphere as republicans mounted a campaign of misinformation and vilification.
According to residents in Belfast, the onslaught is being led by Sinn Fein members who have suggested the sisters are being used by the British government or the SDLP to damage Sinn Fein and the IRA. This includes unfounded claims that the family’s trip to the United States was funded by either government or party sources.
In fact, the family paid for the trip themselves and were short of cash throughout their stay in Washington, even having to ask for lifts from television crews in order to save money on taxis.
The family have said that they have not sought any financial support for their campaign for justice and will not do so.
The sisters and Robert’s partner and mother of his two sons, Bridgeen, also refused to be intimidated by Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness’s "friendly advice" that they "need to be careful" about taking their campaign into local politics and potentially damaging the Sinn Fein vote in Belfast.
Sinn Fein supporters then began bombarding radio phone-ins in Belfast, saying the McCartney sisters were making "a complete political issue" of their brother’s killing by IRA members. A common theme was that the family’s campaign was being used to "demonise" Sinn Fein and the IRA, words originating from McGuinness and Gerry Adams.
In his highly controversial radio interview in which he warned the family to "be careful", McGuinness also claimed the sisters were being manipulated by a man who was bitterly opposed to Sinn Fein and against the Good Friday Agreement. This was said to be aimed at ex-IRA prisoner Anthony McIntyre who is a severe critic of the Adams-McGuinness leadership.
McIntyre denies ever counselling the family and sisters, saying he has not advised them and that they do not need his or anyone’s advice as they are perfectly capable of mounting their own campaign.
The McCartneys have also laughed off suggestions they are being manipulated. Catherine McCartney, a politics lecturer who trains women to become community activists, said: "Just because we are women, people underestimate us, hoping to find someone behind us."
The family has no public relations assistance or "fixers", unlike Sinn Fein which has the best funded PR machine of any political party in Ireland. During his visit to Washington, Gerry Adams was continually flanked by his two main PR figures, Rita O’Hare and Richard McCauley.
Meanwhile, police say the investigation into the McCartney murder is no nearer the point of bringing charges.
Two of the key suspects in the brutal slaying were last week seen casually walking into bookmakers in south Belfast to place bets on the Cheltenham races.
According to sources, the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s (PSNI) investigation is being hampered at many levels, from witnesses being intimidated into not giving statements, to the IRA pressurising others to make admissions. Such admissions, made under threat of death by the terror group, would be inadmissible in court, police sources said.
One crucial witness, whose honest testimony would almost certainly lead to the jailing of several suspects, is known to be seriously in debt to an IRA money lender in Belfast who is a close friend of the key suspects. People in the Markets and Short Strand areas said last week they believe the witness has been told his debt will be cleared so long as he refuses to comply with the PSNI. It is believed he borrowed £15,000 from the loan shark who heads the IRA in the Ardoyne area.
Sinn Fein has also refused to comment on the number of party members who were in the company of McCartney’s killers. One Sinn Fein member, Mid Ulster election candidate Cora Groogan, made a statement to a solicitor only after her presence was made public by the McCartney family.
It is understood her statement claims she saw nothing despite the fact that she is reported to have told a taxi driver that "there were glasses and bottles flying everywhere".
Groogan, who was the youngest candidate in last year’s Assembly elections, has stayed out of public view since making her statement.
Last Tuesday, one of the key suspects presented himself for the second time to police at Musgrave Street Station in Belfast. On the previous occasion, he sat in silence refusing to answer any questions. Investigating officers refused to interview him on Tuesday as they wanted to advance their evidence-gathering before considering whether to arrest and question him again.
During his visit to Washington, Gerry Adams made several references to the investigators’ refusal to question the IRA man, claiming this was evidence they were not conducting a proper investigation.
The PSNI chief constable, Hugh Orde, dismissed the claims and said witnesses were not coming forward to give evidence, so the investigation could not progress quickly.
It has been said that key forensic evidence was destroyed in the immediate aftermath of the murder as the killers called in an IRA forensic clean-up team which allegedly included the wife of one of the IRA men present.
The SDLP accused Sinn Fein of creating a "smokescreen". The police ombudsman, Nuala O’Loan, could launch an inquiry were she to suspect officers of behaving inappropriately, but has not intervened.
Catherine McCartney said: "The police are accountable and under scrutiny. The only people who aren’t accountable are the IRA."
Un-freaking-believable!
Thanks, aculeus, smears my arse!!! F€€€ those Cuban backed IRA traitors!!!!
People in this country, including some at the highest levels in government, have been supporting these terrorists for as long as I can remember. That appears to be slowing down but until it stops completely they will still be a threat.
Are you Irish? Just wondering...
It's deja vu, all over again. In 1976 two Irish women, Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan won the Nobel Peace Prize for founding the "Northern Ireland Peace Movement" (later renamed Community of Peace People). The IRA has lost the funding of the Soviet Union, but the violence goes on, in spite of the women. They haven't figured out that violence is a business to the Marxist thugs of the IRA, just as Lenin used his lackeys to rob banks in Switzerland to pay his rent. They'll never learn.
Yes, and drugs from South America and the Irish Republic. It's a good sign, however that Bush, and even Ted Kennedy, gave the cold shoulder to Jerry Adams last week.
However, these perennial Catholic Irish Women for peace are as effective as are the gang neighborhood mothers in the USA. The more they just march, the more people just die.
Trust me, don't 'misunderestimate' them - Irishwomen on the warpath are a force to be reckoned with (just try and cross Happygal!).
Damn right! Never, ever cross Happygal.
Praise Mary and Joseph, you can be sure that I don't! I still have cousins in Ireland (Cork) and I have a very healthy respect for the colleens. Once an Irish girl has a notion in her head it will take an army to stop her, or an airplane to escape her. Believe me, I know (sigh).
But, when it comes to getting the men to make peace, that's another story. Women have been burying their sons for centuries and we still have war. For Ireland to be a "Nation Once Again", the Republic will have to deny the Pope and the North will have to deny the Queen and then North and South embrace each other and then join the British Commonwealth. It'll never happen.
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