Outrage at IRA offer to shoot members involved in killing

The saga of the killing of Belfast man Robert McCartney has taken an extraordinary turn with an IRA announcement that it was prepared to shoot those involved.

The terrorist organisation said it had made an offer to McCartney's relatives to shoot up to four people, but that the family had made it clear it did not want "physical action".

The shocked political reaction to the offer to kill included descriptions of it as barbaric, sick, obscene and desperate.

The IRA statement did not specify whether the word "shoot" meant to murder or merely wound the four men, but according to one republican source, the IRA was prepared to kill them.

Mr McCartney was stabbed in a Belfast back street on January 30 after a brawl involving both IRA and Sinn Fein members in a pub.

The family's campaign for justice has spurred the IRA and Sinn Fein into actions to limit the damage being inflicted on them by the killing and its aftermath. But yesterday's offer was seen as another sign that the IRA is in turmoil and is making a series of ill-advised steps.

The idea of killing - or even wounding - four men, three of them IRA members, is seen as remarkable. The notion of the organisation, which has been on a declared ceasefire since 1997, confirming that it had offered to carry out such crimes in such a public way was received with something close to disbelief.

One of their nationalist political opponents said: "[Sinn Fein president] Gerry Adams could not have approved of this. It's mind-boggling, it's political stupidity - these guys must have lost their minds."

Sinn Fein has repeatedly said that it supports the McCartney family, who have laid down the goal that the killers should be brought before a court.

Mr Adams has suspended seven members of his party said to have been in the bar where the McCartney incident began. He has - controversially in republican terms - taken unprecedented steps in forwarding their names to the Police Ombudsman, who has passed them on to police.

Graffiti has appeared in Belfast labelling Adams a "tout", or informer.

Paul Murphy, the Northern Ireland Secretary, said: "There is no place for the sort of arbitrary justice and murder that is being suggested here."

- INDEPENDENT