It began with a bang. The biggest bank raid ever, in fact. The IRA was blamed, and the fall-out was massive. Although the IRA denied involvement, they were not believed. Government and opposition parties bitterly attacked Sinn Féin, telling the party that all criminal activity must end.
Well, easier said than done. In February the sisters and fiancée of Robert McCartney launched a campaign against the IRA protection of the persons who murdered their brother.
The IRA started by saying it wasn’t involved in the murder. But its members were, and others covered up for them. After a good deal of pressure, three people were expelled. It was a major embarrassment for the IRA, as the sisters had been Sinn Féin supporters.
The campaign grew. People were named – a Sunday Tribune headline said ‘a sadist, a paedophile and a pervert killed McCartney’. According to Suzanne Breen, seven were involved in the killing and a further seven in the clean-up.
Other republican families followed, like Josephine Milnes, whose son Stephen Montgomery was killed in a hit and run accident.
Later in the year the McCartney sisters came to Dublin to show support for the family of Joseph Rafferty who was shot dead by an IRA gunman in a west Dublin housing estate in April. According to his family the murder was ‘a carbon copy’ of Robert McCartney’s killing. Rafferty had been threatened after he ‘stood up to’ a person who assaulted his younger sister.
Garda sources confirmed that the suspect in the murder had been a member of the IRA. The dead man’s family added that he was active in Sinn Féin. That party’s Daithi Doolan described the murder as a ‘cowardly and brutal act’ and said that those responsible should be brought to justice.
Yes, but how, when they are protected by a code of omerta of which Sicilian Mafiosi would be proud? The McCartneys suffered for their stubbornness, eventually having to leave their homes. Their campaign ebbed.
Others see this and understand. They recognise the same behaviours and implications as are found amongst gangsters in Dublin, Limerick and Cork. The difference is that Sinn Féin purports to be a political and democratic organisation, not a gang of thieves and murderers.
So again one asks – how are the cowards and brutes to be brought to justice? In March, Sinn Féin suspended seven members over the McCartney murder. The IRA issued a statement on March 8th saying that it had offered to shoot the killers of Robert McCartney. The statement caused astonishment and outrage on all sides.
Is this what they mean by ‘brought to justice’? If so, it’s a definition of justice peculiar to themselves alone.
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...And real progress
There’s no doubt that the scale of the Northern Bank robbery and the publicity attaching to the McCartney murder had a major effect on the IRA.

The robbery was followed by Garda raids in February. Chasing money laundering, they arrested a number of republicans including senior Sinn Féin figures. Money was found, lots of it. On Feb 20th alone, they recovered £437,000. One fellow was arrested after reports that large quantities of sterling bank notes were being burned at his house in Passage West in Cork. Bulgarian connections were also mentioned.
By the time of the equinoctal festival (that’s Paddy’s Day to drinkers) the pressure was intense. Northern politicians were not invited to the White House, the McCartneys were. Ted Kennedy called for the IRA to disband.
In April Gerry Adams signalled a quantum change, calling on the IRA to abandon violence – "your determination, selflessness and courage have brought the freedom struggle towards its fulfilment. That struggle can now be taken forward by other means. Now there is an alternative. I have clearly set out my view on what that alternative is. The way forward is by building the political support for republican and democratic objectives across Ireland, and by winning support for these goals internationally."
On July 28th the IRA responded with a statement abandoning its 35-year armed campaign.
On 26th September, IRA arms were put beyond use in a massive decommissioning operation that lasted for several days. It was witnessed by two clergymen who said they spent "many days watching the meticulous and painstaking way in which General de Chastelain, Brigadier General Tauno Nieminen and Ambassador Andrew Sens went about the task of decommissioning the huge amounts of explosives, arms and ammunition."
Historic? Yes. Welcome? Absolutely, though there may be unfinished business. Nobody is fully convinced that the criminality is over, although Michael McDowell said he had no evidence of any since the armed campaign was ended. Perhaps it’s just gone into a kind of grey zone between legality and illegality. When the murders are solved and the perpetrators put away, it will have more substance.
And there were glitches along the way. For example, in August the Colombia Three, Martin McAuley, Niall Connolly and James Monaghan, returned, much to the Government’s embarrassment.
And in September, anti-racket agencies closed in on Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy. The Northern Ireland Assets Recovery Agency, with support from the Manchester police and the CAB in Ireland, searched domestic and business premises in Manchester and Dundalk. Much documentation was seized.
The main target of all this was, according to luxuriant leaks to the press, ‘Slab’ Murphy. He was, or is, allegedly the IRA Chief of Staff. It is also alleged that he had amassed a multimillion pound fortune through cross-border smuggling. According to the BBC’s Underworld Rich List he has accumulated up to £40million.
He denied it all.
But it’s hard not to see what Adams was talking about. Why continue with guns and bombs when you can achieve even more power through the ballot box? And that’s what’s happening. Sinn Féin consolidated its position as the largest nationalist party in Northern Ireland. The next objective involves the other side of the border.
It will be fascinating, to see what happens in the next Irish election. Everybody believes that with the war over, Sinn Féin will increase its quotient of seats. And there’s the rub: it may just be that Sinn Féin will hold the balance of power.