The McCartneys are acting for everyone who has endured similar experiences, writes Gerry Moriarty.
The ghost of Robert McCartney will haunt Sinn Féin through the course of this election, and beyond.
Paula McCartney expanded yesterday evening on how she and three of her sisters, Gemma, Donna and Claire and Robert's fiancée Bridgeen Hagans were forced to abandon a leaflet drop in their home area of Short Strand in east Belfast on Wednesday night.
You can detect the strain but also the resilience in Paula's voice. The family was publicising a "Justice for Robert" vigil for Sunday afternoon outside Magennis's pub, she explained. That's where Robert was fatally stabbed almost 11 weeks ago.
About a dozen men and women intimidated and harassed them, compelling them to halt the leafleting, Paula said. They were subjected to verbal abuse, including sexual taunting. Their murdered brother was also slandered.
The outgoing Sinn Féin councillor for the Short Strand, Joe O'Donnell, portrayed the alleged intimidation in a different light. It was an "altercation", he said, denoting, as far as he was concerned, that the McCartneys may have been as much to blame as the people they said threatened them.
He told BBC Radio Ulster he could not prejudge who was at fault. "There are two sides to every story," he said.
Paula McCartney said that one or two of the group assailing them took photographs.
According to Paula one man shouted, "The men who killed your brother were real men."
"This was to try and provoke a physical response from us," she said. "But can't they see this is what we are campaigning against."
Paula was certain their tormentors would not have any pictures that could be used to embarrass them. "That was part of the reason for the intimidation," she said.
At midnight a sister of one of the seven Sinn Féin members suspended from the party called to her door in the Short Stand telling her to get out of the area. The same message was delivered to Bridgeen, said Paula. Paula asked the woman how she slept at night? "Perfectly fine," said the woman. And how did her brother sleep? "Perfectly fine as well," the woman added.
So, will all this damage Sinn Féin in the Westminster and local elections? Perhaps, but possibly only a little. It could help Mark Durkan and Eddie McGrady win in Foyle and South Down. But, really, what the McCartneys are doing transcends such election analysis.
From time to time you hear people complain: Why all the talk of the McCartneys? Why isn't the murder of my brother, my father, my mother, my sister getting the same publicity? Why is my sense of loss and grievance ignored?
Yet, the McCartneys, despite their singular focus, are acting for everyone who has endured similar terrible experiences in the Troubles. As well as unremittingly seeking justice for their beloved Robert they are quite properly exploiting this election to make a simple but powerful and affirmative point: that Robert McCartney's life and every other lost life in this conflict matters.