Relatives of murdered Belfast man, Mr Robert McCartney, 33, who was stabbed to death after a city centre pub brawl, will urge the US government to intervene at a meeting with the US Consul General in Belfast, Dean Pittman, tomorrow.
Mr McCartney, a 33-year-old forklift driver from the east of the city, was attacked with knives and sewer rods by a gang of Provisionals on January 30, they have claimed.
While the family accepts it was not a sanctioned IRA murder, they have accused republicans of protecting the thugs and threatening witnesses into silence.
But as Sinn Féin attempted to head off a deepening political row over the attack, which came just weeks after the IRA allegedly stole £26.5 million Stg from the Northern Bank's Belfast HQ, leading party member Gerry Kelly spoke out.
The North Belfast MLA said: "I don't care who was involved in this horrible killing.
"Had I been anywhere near where this terrible killing took place, I would immediately have gone to the family and made a statement of what happened there.
"Let me be clear, there will be no cover up. Sinn Féin people will not be involved in covering up this action."
The McCartneys, who met Mr Kelly yesterday, now believe the republican party are sincere.
But Paula McCartney, a sister of the victim, said: "We need to be more convinced they will be handed over.
"It's not in Sinn Fein's interests to cover this up and they seem just as eager as us to get the people who did this." Although police have questioned seven men, including a top IRA man, no one has yet been charged.
In Dublin, political leaders heard how the murder reinforced the need to deal with paramilitarism and criminality must be addressed.
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, told the Dáil: "Some of the issues are more serious from the perspective of the nationalist community than a bank raid.
"A bank raid doesn't affect people other than the families who are caught up, the two families.
"These kind of behaviour do. That is the reason why we need an end to criminality and I agree with that because in all these comments, not to wind things up again, it is not a question about money or about petrol. "It's about stabbing to death. It's far worse.
"So that is the reason, that is the motivation why we want to see the ending of these things for everybody, not least people in nationalist communities who are the people who are affected by this particular incident."
Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte likened the killing to a television Mafia hit.
He said: "Isn't that, Taoiseach, a reason alone, this Tony Soprano-style killing, for the democratic parties and the two governments to break the power of the Republican Movement in controlling paramilitary activity even when not on an officially sanctioned job?"
PA