Damien Kiberd believes that it does the Republican movement no favours to get hung up on who is supporting the McCartney campaign. He believes that it created the situation, and it must deal with it or face the political consequences.
It is inevitable that in the wake of such a ghastly slaying people would intervervene to take advantage of their plight to pursue Sinn Féin. That does not make the criticisms of Sinn Féin that they voice any less forceful. The criticisms of Sinn Féin are no less valid because they come from a family that has been gravely wronged. The plain fact of the matter is that the republican movement will have to clean up the mess. There is no other solution.
Republicans created this terrible situation and they must sort it out. It is just as terrible as the situation that they created at Warrington, perhaps not quite as terrible as the situation they created on the Shankill Road in the early 1990s, but it must be dealt with nonetheless. The republican movement is directly responsible for this slaughter and it must take responsibility for dealing with it. There is no alternative. The republican movement created the crime, then tried to hide it and then, later failed to deal with it: it alone must take the rap.
Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty
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