McPaper Covers McCartneyThe pressure continues to build as
USA Today waddles in on the story.
In 1970, when she was only 2, Irish Republican Army (news - web sites) volunteers defended Catherine McCartney's Catholic neighborhood in East Belfast from Protestants bent on burning it.
"They were heroes then," she says.
Next week, McCartney will go to Washington to meet President Bush (news - web sites) and deliver a very different message: that the modern IRA includes lowlifes who thrive on petty crime and intimidation, then hide behind the organization's aura to avoid accountability, even for murder. Even Congressman Peter King, who has carried the IRA's water enthusiastically for years, is sounding the right notes:
[Gerry] Adams was not invited to the annual St. Patrick's Day celebration at the White House. Instead, he is expected to meet with members of Congress who are longtime Sinn Fein supporters. A leader of that group, Rep. Peter King (news, bio, voting record), R-N.Y., says they'll tell Adams that "the time has really come for the IRA to cease operations and go out of business."