Give it up - Adams

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams has made an unequivocal demand for the killers of Robert McCartney, who died in a knife-fight outside a Belfast bar in January, to face justice.

Mr Adams was speaking following sustained calls by all parties in the North for all those involved, three of whom have since been expelled from the Provisional IRA, to come forward.

One man was questioned and released yesterday in connection with the killing.

In a statement on Wednesday, Mr Adams said that that “self-preservation and selfishness will not prevail”.

“Although many people have come forward - others have not, particularly some who may have been directly involved in Robert’s murder. In my view these people must give a full account through whatever conduit they chose.

“I want also to restate with absolute clarity that whoever killed Robert McCartney should come forward and take responsibility for this. That is what I meant when I said that if I was involved I would make myself accountable to the courts.

“So far Robert McCartney’s killer has not had the courage to do this. Self-preservation and selfishness will not prevail in this case.

“I am not letting this issue go until those who have sullied the republican cause are made to account for their action.”

Meanwhile, a motion on the killing in the Leinster House parliament in Dublin on Wednesday’s became a debate on Sinn Féin’s attitude to the British PSNI police force in the North.

The Fine Gael party had put forward a motion, calling for all those who witnessed the killing to make statements to the police.

Sinn Féin said that while it supported the demand for justice for the McCartney family, the motion should have been amended to encourage witnesses who do not trust the PSNI to bring their information forward through other channels.

Although Sinn Féin’s Caoimhghin O Caolain pointed out that even the PSNI chief Hugh Orde had welcomed such indirect contacts, their efforts to amend the motion had been opposed.

“Sinn Féin supports the thrust of the Fine Gael motion. We do not want to delete one word of it,” said Mr O Caolain in his address to the Dail.

“However, in failing to recognise a reality that even the PSNI itself concedes, the final paragraph restricts the means by which information may be given in order to help bring the killers to justice.

“For this reason Sinn Féin asked Fine Gael to accept our amendment which does not detract one iota, but adds to the motion before us.

“Their refusal is very regrettable.”

Urgent Appeal