The political fallout for Sinn Féin from the killing of Robert McCartney by members of the IRA will today dominate the opening of St Patrick's Day proceedings in Washington, write Mark Hennessy in Syracuse and Conor O'Clery in Washington
The dead man's five sisters and his partner will this morning meet leading Democratic senators, including Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton, on Capitol Hill. Senator Chris Dodd and Senator Pat Leahy are also to attend the meeting.
The senators are likely to increase the pressure on Sinn Féin at a subsequent press conference. Mr Kennedy issued a direct snub to Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams at the weekend when he cancelled a meeting with him which had been due to take place this week.
Tomorrow the McCartneys will meet US president George Bush in the White House and will have a private meeting with Laura Bush. They will be given a high profile during tonight's Ireland Fund dinner in Washington, one of the leading social gatherings of the Irish-American community.
The dinner will also be attended by Geraldine Finucane, whose husband Pat was murdered by the UDA in Belfast in 1989.
The refusal by the British government to hold a full public inquiry into the Finucane killing is to be raised by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern during his White House meeting tomorrow with Mr Bush.
Last night a Government spokeswoman said the Finucane killing had "an iconic status that has affected nationalist confidence in the rule of law" and that the Government continued vigorously to oppose British plans to limit the disclosure of evidence to any such inquiry.
The McCartney family group has become a powerful representative in the US of the victims of lawlessness in Northern Ireland and their presence reinforces unprecedented demands for the end of the IRA from friends and foes of Sinn Féin alike.
Before leaving Ireland to fly to Washington via Baltimore yesterday, Catherine McCartney said they had lined up a number of meetings with politicians for today and tomorrow, including US envoy to Ireland Mitchell Reiss.
Mr Adams will also meet Mr Reiss in Washington today and is expected to face questions about his willingness and ability to bring about an end to IRA illegal activities. Mr Adams has given broad hints in public about bringing about the end of the IRA, telling the Council on Foreign Relations in New York that no one wished to go back to violence and "people want to see the IRA leave the stage in a dignified way".
The McCartney family, Mr Adams and Mr Ahern, who arrives in Washington today, will all be attending the annual American Ireland Fund dinner this evening, where a distinguished leadership award will be presented to Republican senator John McCain.
Ms McCartney also said they would meet an ad-hoc congressional committee on human rights in Northern Ireland which has held hearings on the Finucane murder.
Their focus was simply to get justice for Robert, she said, but they would tell Mr Bush and other Washington politicians they met that "if we succeed in getting justice for my brother, that will have an impact on other cases similar to ours".
The decision by Mr Kennedy to cancel his planned meeting with Mr Adams has not stopped other members of Congress from meeting him. They include congressman Richard Neal from Massachusetts, who said it had been his policy to meet the leaders of all the political parties in Northern Ireland.
Congressman Peter King from Long Island, a friend of long standing of Mr Adams, will join the chorus of voices telling the Sinn Féin leader it is time for the IRA to go.
In a speech in Syracuse, New York yesterday, Mr Ahern said he was looking forward to briefing Mr Bush on recent developments and to expressing appreciation to him and his administration for their ongoing support and encouragement.
He said there was some way to go before the work of implementing the Belfast Agreement was complete.
A number of recent incidents involving paramilitary activity and criminality - including the murder of Mr McCartney - would suggest that some people had yet to fully embrace the agreement's requirements for peace and democracy.
"These destructive activities not only destroy lives and communities," Mr Ahern said, "but call into question a declared commitment to the pursuit of political objectives through exclusively peaceful and democratic means."