In the to and fro about the murder of Robert McCartney, a form of McCarthyism is abroad once more, writes Fionnuala O Connor
The penalty for deviation from the lines ordained by the self-appointed inheritors of the republican mantle - or the self-appointed arbiters of democratic decency - is censure, virulent as ever. It is another Troubles leftover that the disappointed hopeful hate to see resurfacing.
"Tell us what we want to hear" is a foolish maxim. Yet a time-worn response damns as propaganda any assessment of the mood in republican districts which does not say republicans are losing support, and which does not tell them how wrong they are. So it almost becomes culpable to say that the Sinn Féin vote will hold up - even though most people believe they will make gains in local government and Westminster elections.
We have been here before, and professional observers can look after themselves. But nobody sucked into a media maelstrom straight after a bereavement should be expected to cope with the pettiest of criticism in the midst of grief and exhaustion.
Robert McCartney's sisters sound the most capable and balanced of people. They clearly have a wider family that feeds in energy and provides practical support. The sisters felt they had to spell out how far their American trip was from luxury - logical enough, given the first wave of badminded backbiting in Belfast at their "liking for the limelight". As if the republican leadership were shy souls who wouldn't fly to the ends of the earth for a good photograph; but badmouthers never hear themselves.
The McCartneys obviously draw strength from their relationship with each other and with their brother's bereft partner. Their own resources have kept them resolute where many would falter. Even their cheerful admission to Marian Finucane that of course they've argued about this campaign, like everything else, supports the sense of their strength.
But the lingering sound from that interview was the exhausted sobs in the background of Bridgeen Hagans. That would melt any heart. Wouldn't it?
With all the ferocity of family quarrels, republican hearts are hardened against the McCartneys. They have sinned against a tribe still shackled by the thought patterns of a downtrodden minority. They broke the only commandments that matter: thou shalt not wash dirty linen in public; thou shalt not give ammunition to the enemy. It might seem to the outsider that they have been careful to pay tribute to the IRA's past as defender in small, beleaguered Short Strand, that the case they make, as former Sinn Féin voters, is all the stronger for being couched as disgust that volunteers in a once-proud defence force should stoop so low.
Unionist politicians have managed for the most part to neither rubbish this stance, though some must be tempted, nor nail them to a broad anti-nationalist platform. A novel reaction. Even this new moderation brings sharp responses. An e-mail to UTV's website reads: "I don't support the McCartney sisters, because Sammy Wilson does. He and his voters have attempted over the years to run the Strand out of east Belfast, and only the Shinners and the IRA stopped them. Sorry but that's the way I feel."
The old whataboutery is the common denominator between forthright denunciations and the weaselly letters to the papers, which praise before carping. An Irish News example this week was headlined "Vultures are feasting daily on the dead", a quote from a letter which concluded: "When did southern politicians last set aside time to discuss the murder of a Belfast Catholic? When did we ever see a Taoiseach and a British prime minister together on television expressing support and sympathy for the family of a murdered Belfast Catholic?"
Media circuses peak early. Republican heartlands were always dicey territory for the family's campaign and the short attention span of a mass audience demands swift resolutions.
The trouble is that nothing can satisfy the McCartney demand but a confession to murder, or manslaughter. Neither seems likely. Do the decent thing, say Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, but if these were decent guys Robert McCartney would still be alive. Sinn Féin and the IRA are left with a problem akin to that of the Disappeared - an oppressive and perpetual guilt, which they would dearly wish away.
Republican mythology demands that republicans have a majority stakeholding in suffering, if not a monopoly on it. It is not good if Catholics, republican voters in good standing, insist on saying that the IRA has oppressed them. Sinn Féin's political "project" is frozen. They might as well get the IRA to call time on itself, or sign up to policing, as Adams has as good as done already. Ian Paisley might combust. Inducement enough?