The McCartney family has rejected as inadequate the IRA's response to Robert McCartney's murder, as Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams signalled that the IRA may be compelled to take some dramatic initiative to end pressure on republicans, writes Gerry Moriarty, Northern Editor.
The family has insisted that the IRA move of expelling three members allegedly involved in Mr McCartney's killing did not go far enough. They believe that at least 12 IRA members were implicated in his murder four weeks ago and that the IRA must hand these people over to the authorities.
About 500 people attended a rally in the nationalist Short Strand area of east Belfast yesterday where Mr McCartney's sister, Paula, told the crowd that all involved in the killing should hand themselves in. If they didn't, they "should be pressurised to do so".
During the rally members of the wider McCartney family distributed PSNI leaflets asking people to go to the police with information that could lead to the killers being caught and convicted.
Sinn Féin Assembly member Alex Maskey and party councillor Joe O'Donnell attended the rally where Gerry McKay, an uncle of the murdered father of two, confronted them.
He accused the IRA of "butchering" his nephew and said Mr Maskey should ensure that the 12 IRA members he was convinced carried out the killing should give themselves up. Mr Maskey said he was not in a position to hand anyone over to the police.
At a republican rally in south Armagh, Mr Adams expressed his support for the rally, and said: "Robert McCartney's murder has shocked hundreds of thousands of republicans throughout Ireland and we are united in our call for anyone with information about the killing to come forward."
Mr Adams also said at the weekend that had he been involved in the violence at Magennis's pub, he would have made himself "available to the courts". He did not go so far as to say he would hand himself over to the police in such circumstances but added: "Whatever avenue I would use, I would make myself accountable."
So far none of the three IRA members expelled from the organisation, including, according to local sources, the senior commander who allegedly ordered that Mr McCartney be stabbed to death, has heeded Mr Adams's advice. A fourth man, understood to have been near the murder scene, did go to the police with his solicitor at the weekend but was released without charge.
Mr Adams indicated at a south Armagh rally yesterday that the pressure on Sinn Féin - primarily from the McCartney murder but also from the Northern Bank raid and the alleged IRA multimillion pound money-laundering operation - was having an effect on the broad provisional republican movement.
He told the republican rally that "those who want the greatest change have to take the greatest risks", and indicated that this could be the time for hard decisions for republicans. He said republicans had demonstrated their capacity for taking risks on many occasions. "We are up for the challenge today. We are determined to see all the guns taken out of Irish politics and to be part of the collective effort that will create the conditions where the IRA ceases to exist. We are determined that the issues of policing, demilitarisation, human rights and equality are dealt with."
DUP leader Ian Paisley indicated he could still share power with Sinn Féin if it was abundantly clear that it had fully decommissioned and had ended paramilitary and criminal activity.
SDLP deputy leader Alasdair McDonnell said he didn't believe Sinn Féin protestations that they wanted to assist the McCartneys. He said people still felt intimidated about giving evidence and that republicans had "temporarily sacrificed three" IRA members "to aid the cover-up".