A relative of an Irish policeman murdered by the IRA has claimed that Sinn Fein presidential candidate Martin McGuinness has ‘blood on his hands’.

Detective Jerry McCabe was killed and colleague Ben O’Sullivan wounded during an IRA robbery of a post office can in Adare in County Limerick in 1996.

McGuinness has claimed that he left the IRA in 1974 but the McCabe family have urged voters not to support his bid for presidency.

Una Heaton, sister of McCabe’s wife Ann, told the Sunday Independent that she hopes ‘sanity prevails’ and voters reject McGuinness who ‘has blood on his hands’.

Heaton said: “David Norris has only ink on his hands - Martin McGuinness has blood on his hands,” according to Irish Independent reports.

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Adding that it is very difficult for her sister to talk about her husband’s death, Heaton said Ann McCabe was devastated when opinion polls suggested strong support for McGuinness.

Mrs Heaton told voters: “When you are going to vote, remember all the people killed in bombs like Enniskillen and remember people like Colin Parry who lost his son (in the IRA’s bombing in Warrington town centre in which 12-year-old Tim Parry was killed alongside Jonathan Ball, aged three, in February 1993) and ask yourself would you like to have a guy like Martin McGuinness represent our country. I hope it never happens.

“I was in the Stormont Assembly with relations of other victims when Mr McGuinness was present. I was in the gallery in Stormont and he would not look me in the eye. He has no conscience.”

Broadcaster Gay Byrne’s claims in the media last week that McGuinness and Gerry Adams are ‘liars’ was also welcomed by Mrs Heaton.