Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)

Clearly, when the monsters who disfigured Brendan Devine and inflicted unspeakable violence on Robert McCartney thought they could escape accountability by cynically organising a forensic cleansing at the crime scene and by intimidating witnesses, they did not reckon on the intervention of six formidable working class women, the McCartney sisters and Bridgeen Hagans. I salute them for their resilience, courage and determination. They have challenged the intimidation of the bullies who became so used to strutting around the Short Strand and Markets area they thought they could literally get away with murder.

The mobilisation of the community demanding justice is a message to the paramilitary organisations, not only on the republican side but also on the loyalist side, that working class communities in the North have had enough of the undemocratic control exercised by these organisations over their communities. It is ironic it is suggested that the McCartney family might be invited to the White House by President Bush, a man who has visited unspeakable violence on others. I warn that justice for Robert McCartney will not be found in the White House or any other big house but on the streets and in the communities of Northern Ireland in the form of the mobilisation of the community that is taking place. In that sense, a rally that may be organised outside the pub where the atrocity took place should draw support from throughout Belfast and Northern Ireland as a whole, the trade union movement and, I hope, activists and working class people from Protestant and Catholic areas.

I may be convinced that Sinn Féin and the IRA are serious about their demands that justice be done when witnesses come forward and tell what they know because this would mean the intimidation has been lifted. I will support the Sinn Féin addendum to the motion so that no one who can assist in bringing these killers to justice has any excuse for not coming forward. However, that addendum or people coming forward in that way will only have effect if those people are prepared to give evidence in court about the atrocity they saw and name those who carried it out. This must be added as a rider to this call that people can come forward without necessarily going to the PSNI.

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