BELFAST, Northern Ireland — Along the mean streets of this city soaked in blood and memory, something strange is happening. On a wall in the overwhelmingly Roman Catholic neighborhood of Short Strand, two words of graffiti have appeared: "Disband Now."
The Irish Republican Army, long the law in Short Strand, is finding itself under attack not only by its longtime nemeses, the Protestant Ulster unionists and the British government, but by working-class Catholic families. They say the organization has become a criminal gang, killing and robbing without regard to common decency.
In this tightknit community where a code of silence normally prevails, the catalyst for the growing outrage was the killing of a popular 33-year-old Catholic working father after a fight that by most accounts began with nothing more than a perceived insult to an IRA man's female companion.
A six-week campaign by Robert McCartney's sisters to bring the killers to justice and their public denunciations of alleged IRA intimidation of witnesses have sparked parades and candlelight vigils -- and emboldened others to speak of their anger and resentment. To many, Ra, as the IRA is called here, has become the Rafia.
The McCartney killing added to a mood of disgust with the IRA that had been building since police blamed the group for Britain's largest bank robbery, as well as other crimes, even as the IRA and other armed groups have adhered to a 1997 cease-fire in this British province long ravaged by sectarian violence.
As a result, Gerry Adams, the leader of Sinn Fein, which has been considered the IRA's political wing, has seen his reputation questioned and his popularity plummet. Responding to public pressure, Adams suspended "without prejudice" seven Sinn Fein members who were at the scene of the attack, and he called on witnesses to get any useful information to the police.
The IRA responded too. It announced an investigation and said it was expelling three members it believed had taken part in the attack. Then the group delivered its coup de grace: It revealed it had met with the victim's sisters and offered to shoot the perpetrators.
The statement only provoked further revulsion. The family insisted it wanted the attackers tried in court and reiterated that witnesses felt threatened.
