February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Catherine McCartney said police told her and her four sisters Paula, Gemma, Claire, Donna and her dead brother’s fiancee, Bridgeen Hagans, of the threats.
Only Paula and Bridgeen still live in the Short Strand area of Belfast. The threat was extended to the sandwich bar run by Donna McCartney in Central Belfast.
The police visited the homes of the McCartney sisters just days after the European Parliament backed moves to secure funding for a civil action against McCartney’s killers if criminal proceedings do not take place.
Catherine McCartney said the threats would not deter then and “illustrate the type of people we are dealing with. We are told they are coming from criminal elements but we would like to know exactly what that means.
“Does that mean criminal elements from within a terrorist organization?” she asked.
The IRA has expelled three members over their involvement in the murder of Robert McCartney outside a Belfast city center bar on Jan. 30. Twelve members of Sinn Fein were suspended with several expelled for failing to give full accounts.
The Sinn F