McCartney sisters eclipse Adams in US St Patrick's Day celebrations

Independent, The (London), Mar 15, 2005 by David McKittrick Ireland Correspondent

THE McCARTNEY sisters will arrive in America today with the full weight of international support behind their campaign to bring their brother's killers to justice - in contrast to the fortunes of fellow visitor Gerry Adams, president of Sinn Fein.

The chill winds of disapproval are being felt by Mr Adams in Washington this week, with IRA illegalities casting a transatlantic cloud over his St Patrick's Day visit.

His trip has been eclipsed by the arrival today of the McCartney sisters of Belfast, whose quest to find their brother Robert's murderers have propelled them into the international limelight and exposed what they say is Sinn Fein's attempt to cover up the killing. This year it is the sisters who will have pride of place in the city which has for years feted the Sinn Fein leader.

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Mr McCartney, 33, was stabbed to death after an argument in a bar in Belfast on 30 January.

Washington's doors have swung open for the five sisters, together with Mr McCartney's partner, Bridgeen Hagans, whose campaign has caught the imagination of the US public. They will be meeting President George Bush and other important figures with the message that their brother was killed by members of the republican movement which, despite Sinn Fein's protestations, is not co-operating to catch the killers.

After revelations that two female Sinn Fein election candidates were in the bar on the night Mr McCartney died, Paula McCartney said yesterday that Sinn Fein "stinks of a cover-up".

The sisters' access to the White House gives them a much more impressive itinerary than Mr Adams, who will not, for the first time in more than a decade, meet the President. Nor will he meet Senator Edward Kennedy, one of Irish-America's most important figures, who has pulled out of an Adams meeting because of the IRA's "ongoing criminal activity and contempt for the rule of law". The senator will, however, be meeting the McCartneys.

Mr Adams will not be fundraising on this trip as usual. Although many of his engagements were originally planned as fundraisers, Sinn Fein became worried that this could become a contentious issue for the US administration.

No Northern Ireland politicians have been invited to the White House, where three of the McCartney sisters will be introduced to Mr Bush before the main St Patrick's Day reception.

Washington, in common with London and Dublin, is highly critical of Sinn Fein. This was spelt out yesterday by Richard Haass, a former US special envoy to Northern Ireland, who said: "No one as yet is ruling out dealing with Sinn Fein, but with the passage of months or even years that could very well happen. Gerry Adams does not want to become Yasser Arafat. He does not want to become someone who is unwilling to choose between the olive branch and the gun. Mr Adams and more broadly the republican movement has to make the choice, 100 per cent, to play by democratic rules and play a political game only. The clock is running, not just on him but on the republican movement."

But Sinn Fein has deep roots in the US, and there is as yet no sign that the Irish-American grassroots are turning away from Irish republicanism. Nor has congressional opinion come out strongly against Sinn Fein.

Last night Sinn Fein's chief negotiator, Martin McGuinness, appeared to warn the family to back off. With one of the sisters threatening an electoral challenge to the party, the Mid Ulster MP said the campaign to bring the killers to justice could be left open to political manipulation and the family could jeopardise its popular support. He said: "The McCartneys need to be very careful. To step over that line, which is a very important line, into the world of party political politics, can do a huge disservice to their campaign."

THE SISTERS' WASHINGTON SCHEDULE

Tomorrow:

Meetings with Mitchell Reiss, Senator Edward Kennedy, Senator Hillary Clinton and other members of the Senate and the House;

Appearances at Northern Ireland Bureau reception and Congressional committee hearings;

American Ireland Fund dinner;

Thursday

White House for meeting with President Bush, followed by St Patrick's Day reception, where no Northern Ireland politicians will be present;

There may be other meetings scheduled with members of Congress and other prominent figures;

Irish embassy reception

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McCartney sisters eclipse Adams in US St Patrick's Day celebrations

Independent, The (London), Mar 15, 2005 by David McKittrick Ireland Correspondent

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