The pressure on Sinn Féin and the IRA to take further action to help convict the killers of Robert McCartney continued to mount yesterday as about 500 people attended a rally in the nationalist Short Strand area of east Belfast in support of the McCartney family.
Although three IRA members allegedly involved in the murder of Mr McCartney four weeks ago were expelled from the organisation, the McCartney family insisted that at least a dozen people were implicated in the killing and that they should all be pressurised into handing themselves over to justice.
One man, additional to the three expelled IRA members, went to the police with his solicitor on Saturday in connection with the killing. He was interviewed but released without being charged.
The McCartney family and Mr McCartney's partner, Bridgeen, were applauded loudly as they arrived at Mount Pottinger Road for yesterday afternoon's rally, which was also attended by Sinn Féin Assembly member Alex Maskey and party councillor Joe O'Donnell. Mr Maskey said he was present "to support the McCartney family to get justice".
Paula McCartney, Robert McCartney's sister, praised the crowd for ignoring the "intimidation and whispering campaign" against them.
"We hope and pray over the coming days and weeks those responsible for Robert's murder and in the cover and clean-up operation will do the patriotic and right thing and hand themselves over and tell all they know truthfully," she said.
"If not, they should be pressurised to do so. If these men walk free from this, then everyone in Ireland should fear the consequences. Justice must be done."
Ms McCartney said her family would not stop striving for justice for her brother.
"No matter how long it takes and where ever it takes us, only when justice has been achieved can we feel that humanity and decency has been restored and we, the people, can be free of being murdered by the people who claim to work in our name," she said.
Journalist and socialist Eamon McCann said justice must be done for Robert McCartney and his family. Paramilitaries now had nothing useful to offer local working-class communities, whether Catholic or Protestant.
"Whatever role they played in the past is over. They have no positive role to play now. The people must play the role now," he said.
At a rally in south Armagh yesterday, Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams said: "Robert McCartney's murder has shocked hundreds of thousands of republicans throughout Ireland and we are united in our call for anyone with information about the killing to come forward. I want to send my support to the rally. Sinn Féin fully supports the family of Robert McCartney in their demand for justice and truth. I have met the family and I remain in contact with them," he said.
Earlier in the weekend Mr Adams told the BBC that if he had been caught up in the events surrounding the killing of Mr McCartney, he would have made himself "available to the courts with all the reservations that someone like me would have about all of these matters".
When asked if he would make himself available to the police in such circumstances, Mr Adams replied: "Well, whatever avenue I would use I would make myself accountable. I would certainly go to my solicitor and work that out."
SDLP deputy leader Alasdair McDonnell, who also attended the rally, said the McCartney family and those who supported them were not going to be satisfied by a "few token expulsions" from the IRA.
