Sinn Féin has withdrawn one of its candidates in the North's local elections pending the outcome of an internal party inquiry over her presence in Magennis's Bar in Belfast the night Robert McCartney was murdered.
Deirdre Hargey was initially listed to stand with Sinn Féin Assembly member Alex Maskey in the Laganbank ward in the election to Belfast City Council on May 5th.
Her name was excluded from the list of official candidates at the close of nominations for the election on Tuesday. Sinn Féin said Ms Hargey was not standing "because she is among a number of party members suspended pending the completion of internal party procedures.
"These procedures were put in place to establish whether the party president's (Gerry Adams's) instructions for members present in Magennis's Bar on the night Robert McCartney was killed were followed. Because they are suspended - and this is without prejudice - Deirdre cannot be nominated," Sinn Féin said in a statement.
Sinn Féin president Mr Adams last month announced that seven Sinn Féin members were suspended from the party pending inquiries into the presence of its members in or around Magennis's the night Mr McCartney was fatally stabbed.
It also emerged last month that unsuccessful Mid-Ulster Assembly Election candidate Cora Groogan and former Belfast councillor Seán Hayes were in the bar on the night Mr McCartney was attacked.
No one has been charged with the killing despite the fact that more than 12 people were arrested in connection with the killing and despite more than 70 people being in Magennis's the night Mr McCartney was stabbed.
Police and McCartney family sources said that while many of these people voluntarily went to the PSNI no one has yet provided eyewitness evidence that could convict the killers. The McCartneys complained of a "wall of silence" from those who could identify the killers.
Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble has made what the party called a "last ditch" appeal to the DUP to agree a unity pact in key constituencies. Earlier discussions under the auspices of the Orange Order aimed at achieving a pact faltered, with the DUP complaining that the UUP was making excessive demands.
The DUP said that the UUP wanted it to withdraw from constituencies such as East Antrim and South Antrim currently held by Ulster Unionists Roy Beggs and David Burnside. This was never a runner, the DUP said, because it was confident its respective candidates in these constituencies, Sammy Wilson and the Rev William McCrea, would win the seats.
The DUP said it was willing however to make a trade-off over who should run in South Belfast and Fermanagh-South Tyrone.
The collapse of the unity pact talks and subsequent acrimonious exchanges on the matter between the UUP and the DUP seemed to have ended the prospects of any form of deal. But last night Mr Trimble again opened up the possibility of an agreement.
"Even at this eleventh hour, I would appeal to the DUP to put the interests of unionism first and accept the anti-Sinn Féin strategy we have proposed that would limit, or even reduce, Sinn Féin's representation at Westminster," said Mr Trimble.
