The sister of Dubliner Joseph Rafferty, who was shot dead by a former member of the IRA, is to meet US president George W Bush in the White House on St Patrick's Day in an effort to increase pressure on Sinn Féin to persuade the alleged killer to give himself up.
Esther Uzell is also expected to use her trip to the US to announce her intention to run in the general election as an Independent candidate.
Her family believes that because the chief suspect has been in the IRA and has canvassed for Sinn Féin, the republican movement has a responsibility to help solve Mr Rafferty's murder.
The family met President Bush on St Patrick's Day last year as part of their campaign to bring the killer to justice.
Ms Uzell, who left for Washington yesterday, will run in Dublin South East, the same constituency as Minister for Justice Michael McDowell. Sinn Féin's candidate in the constituency is councillor Daithí Doolan.
After her brother's killing, Ms Uzell said that a number of times in the months before the April 2005 murder she told Mr Doolan about threats against her brother that he would be "got" by the IRA. Mr Doolan she said had assured her the people issuing the threats had been spoken to and the matter had been resolved.
However, Mr Doolan has said that at no time was he informed of any threat against the life of Mr Rafferty being made by the man who allegedly killed him.
He has said he was informed by Ms Uzell that brothers from the south inner city, where Ms Uzell and her brother are originally from, had threatened Mr Rafferty. He was asked to find out if these men were in the IRA.
He says he did this and relayed to the family that the men were not in the IRA.
The man who allegedly shot Mr Rafferty is in a relationship with the mother of the brothers with whom Mr Rafferty had originally clashed. This man is the only suspect for his murder.
