People power forces IRA u-turn over bar killings

An awesome display of "people power" in Belfast has led to one arrest and pressured the IRA into expelling three of its members following the killing of a forklift truck driver in a Belfast bar brawl.

The death of Robert McCartney, a 33-year-old father of two from the city, has horrified many republicans and has thrown the IRA into crisis - amid allegations that high-ranking members of the organisation were responsible for his killing.

But a determined public campaign by the five sisters of the victim has mobilised opinion and forced the IRA to throw out the three - two of whom were said to be "high-ranking volunteers" - in an extraordinary damage-limitation exercise.

In a related move, the Sinn Fein president, Gerry Adams, yesterday said that if he had witnessed the McCartney killing he would go to court to give evidence. Both developments are taken as a signal that the IRA and Sinn Fein are under immense pressure. It is the closest republicans have come to acknowledging the legitimacy of the Northern Ireland justice system.

The McCartney family said they were encouraged by the IRA response, regarding it as "a step forward in our search for truth and justice". They did not accept the IRA's version of events, but welcomed the assurance that witnesses would not face intimidation.

The family said all those involved, including IRA members and non-members, should "hand themselves in".

Detectives investigating the murder of McCartney said that they had arrested a man after he and his solicitor went to a police station in Belfast.

The killing of McCartney, in combination with December's major bank robbery in Belfast and the recovery of millions of pounds in County Cork, has tainted the IRA and Sinn Fein with criminality, severely denting Adams' popularity in the Irish Republic.

The IRA initially closed ranks after McCartney's killing, warning eyewitnesses not to go to the police. The bar was thoroughly cleaned and potential forensic evidence disappeared.

McCartney's partner, Bridgeen Hagans, and his five sisters said up to 20 people - not all of them IRA members - had been involved.

- INDEPENDENT