As
anyone who has read the few articles I have already
written here will know I am certainly not a member
or a supporter of Sinn Fein but I am a Republican.
Neither was I in Magennis’s bar on the night
Robert Mc Cartney was murdered so I have no insight
into what happened there. In that I am at one with
99.9% of the population of Belfast and beyond. What
I do know is that what happened was wrong and should
never have happened. That the killers should be
brought to justice is a sentiment that everyone
should agree with and I am no exception.
But
I also live in the real world and in the apparent
absence of any forensic or photographic evidence
there seems little chance of charges or convictions.
I do not expect that at this stage the killers will
go to Musgrave St to admit their guilt, so where
does that leave the Mc Cartney sisters?
All
the pressure in the world may not give them what
they want and when the media tire of them, as they
will, they will be left to grieve alone for their
brother.
There
will be no more visits to or from Fine Gael politicians,
no more stirring editorials and no more support
from those who never had any time for anyone from
the Short Strand. Like Betty Williams, Mairead Corrigan,
Nancy Gracey and all the others cynically used in
their genuine grief, they will be left alone while
politics trundles on.
There
will be no major breakthrough because of the Mc
Cartney sisters because in the greater scheme of
things they don’t really matter to either the
Irish or British Governments. What really matters
is stability on this island and no more Canary Wharfs.
Unpalatable
as it may be to say this but what happened in that
bar was a bar room brawl that got out of hand and
tragically a young man lost his life. Of course
the Sinners tried a cover up but that does not lessen
the fact that it was a bar room brawl.
The
one question that has baffled me, and there may
well be a legal reason why this can’t be answered,
but for weeks the Mc Cartney family along with the
Sinners have been urging anyone in Magennis’s
to give statements, and in the family’s case
they want witnesses in court. So where are Robert
Mc Cartney’s drinking companions in all of
this? If they won’t go to court then it can
hardly be expected that others will.
