The family of murdered Belfast man Robert McCartney received a threat from republican elements, it emerged tonight.
The sisters of Robert, who was beaten and stabbed to death outside a bar on January 30th, told of their worry as this second threat appeared more sophisticated than the one from "criminal elements" earlier this month.
Catherine McCartney said the PSNI had confirmed the latest threat was from republicans.
She said: "This threat implies that republican elements are going to take action against the McCartney family if they continue to discredit the republican movement."
The family spokeswoman added: "We just found out on the way up to Dublin that there has been another threat but we want to confirm the details of that.
"But we understand the wording of it is that it was from republican elements, the last threat specified criminal elements."
The sisters - Catherine, Clare, Gemma, Paula and Donna - were in Dublin as guests of honour at a civic reception held by the Lord Mayor, Michael Connaughan.
Catherine McCartney said they would be ringing the PSNI to confirm further details about the threat after the ceremony tonight. "It is worrying, as I say for us personally, I want to see more details of the threat because if it is the way it was read out, the language tends to be more sophisticated than the last threat. If you read the last threat, it was criminal elements may have threatened," she said.
Earlier this month police visited the sisters - and Mr McCartney's partner Bridgeen Hagans - at their Short Strand home to tell them "criminal elements" were threatening to burn down their homes and the business one of them runs.
The women believe they are being targeted by republicans for their campaign to bring their brother's killer to justice. Mr McCartney was stabbed in a pub frequented by republicans and his family believes the IRA was involved in the murder, with one accusing Sinn Fein of not doing all it could to help bring the killers to justice.