THE Provisional IRA was facing a storm of public anger and political astonishment last night after it offered to shoot the men blamed for the murder of Robert McCartney, whose brutal killing has prompted an unprecedented campaign for justice.

The statement exposes the group’s willingness to use violence when it sees fit despite its public claims to be committed to the peace process.

The macabre offer was made to Mr McCartney’s family by a Provisional representative who, the declaration says, “stated in clear terms that the IRA was prepared to shoot people directly involved in the killing of Robert McCartney”.

The IRA’s apparent intention was to put on record how far it was prepared to go to satisfy the clamour for justice. But instead its public relations exercise has gone spectacularly wrong with the group drawing withering criticism from every party in Northern Ireland except Sinn Fein, its political wing.

The Northern Ireland Secretary, Paul Murphy, led the criticism, saying that there was no place for “kangaroo courts or murder”.

The campaign for justice by Mr McCartney’s five sisters and fiancée has put the IRA under the kind of pressure that it has rarely endured since the days of the Peace People campaign of the mid-1970s.

The organisation issued its declaration as Paula McCartney and her sisters were preparing to fly to Washington to meet President Bush in the White House on St Patrick’s Day. The move came 11 days after the group announced that it had expelled three members — two of them high-ranking — for involvement in the murder. The Sinn Fein president, Gerry Adams , has also said that he passed the names of implicated republicans — some of whom he said he knew — to the Northern Ireland police ombudsman.

The statement said that an IRA representative had met the dead man’s family for five and a half hours “in the presence of an independent observer” during which it gave a detailed account of its own internal investigation.

It said that four men — two of whom were IRA members — were directly involved in the murderous attack on Mr McCartney and his friend Brendan Devine on January 30.

In chilling language the statement said: “One man was responsible for providing the knife that was used in the stabbing of Robert McCartney and Brendan Devine in Market Street. He got the knife from the kitchen of Magennis’s Bar.

“Another man stabbed Robert McCartney and Brendan Devine.

“A third man kicked and beat Robert McCartney after he had been stabbed in Market Street.

“A fourth man hit a friend of Robert McCartney and Brendan Devine across the face with a steel bar in Market Street.

“The man who provided the knife also retrieved it from the scene and destroyed it. The same man also took the CCTV tape from the bar, after threatening a member of staff and later destroyed it. He also burnt clothes after the attack.”

The IRA’s statement said that the organisation’s conclusions were based upon “voluntary admissions” and urged “any witnesses who can assist in any way to come forward. That remains our position. The only interest the IRA has in this case is to see truth and justice achieved.”

It added that Mr McCartney’s family had made it clear that they wanted trials and not “physical action taken against those involved”.

Ian Paisley, the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, said the offer to shoot those responsible for the murder of Mr McCartney confirmed again that “terrorism is the only stock and trade of Sinn Fein/IRA”.

But Gerry Kelly, a former IRA bomber and prison escaper who is now an elected Sinn Fein representative, said: “The shooting did not take place and it would not have been acceptable.

“Whatever people think of the IRA they have their own disciplinary codes or whatever, and in this case they stated it to the family and then did not act upon it. Now that is a changed situation in itself.”

But Alex Attwood of the SDLP said: “They didn’t do it because of the resolve and the dignity and decency and clarity of the family. The message that goes out across the North today is that the IRA reserve unto themselves the right to visit murder where they deem it appropriate.”

Mr Murphy said that he was appalled. “Any sort of punishment ought to come from the courts. There ought to be due process of law. There’s no place for arbitrary justice, there’s no place for kangaroo courts or capital punishment in this country.

“But there is a place for truth. There’s no place among those who signed up to the Good Friday agreement for this sort of arbitrary justice and murder that’s being suggested here.”

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