A small number of pro-Belfast Agreement republicans, led by Mr Gerry Adams, and some dissident republicans attended the funeral in Navan, Co Meath, yesterday of the first Provisional IRA leader, Mr Sean Mac Stiofain.
Mr Mac Stiofain's coffin was draped with the flag of the Irish language movement, Conradh na Gaeilge, and not the Tricolour, as might be expected for a former IRA chief of staff.
Conradh na Gaeilge organised the funeral, with much of the service, sermon and graveside oration in Irish. Local Sinn Fein members, led by the ardchomhairle member, Mr Joe Reilly, assisted at the graveside.
About 500 attended the service at St Mary's Church and funeral to St Mary's Cemetery where the oration was delivered by Ms Ita Ni Chionnaigh of Conradh.
One of Ireland's best-known traditional musicians, Mr Noel Hill from Co Clare, played The Lament of Limerick during the service and then The Wild Geese at the graveside.
There was no political oration, though Ms Ni Chionnaigh attacked what she described as "character assassination" of Mr Mac Stiofain in the "gutter press". She described him as a revolutionary and "the most important man in the history of Ireland along with characters like Pearse.
"He was interested in the rights of men and women and people anywhere in the world who were oppressed, including Irish speakers in Ireland who are also oppressed."
She referred to his leadership of the Provisional IRA from 1969 to 1972. He joined the IRA in London in 1949 and served eight years' imprisonment (for the robbery of arms from a military cadet depot). During his time in Wormwood Scrubs and Brixton prisons he became friends with members of the Greek-Cypriot group EOKA. A number of EOKA members attended the funeral. He learned to speak both Irish and Greek while in prison.
Among those who attended the funeral were the Belfast republican Joe Cahill who described Mr Mac Stiofain as a "workaholic who would never ask anyone to do something he would not do himself - that was the type of person he was".
Dr Rose Dugdale, who was jailed for nine years for the theft of 19 paintings from the Beit collection at Russborough House, Co Wicklow, in 1974, also attended. Dr Dugdale was also sentenced for attempting to hijack a helicopter in Co Donegal in an attempt to drop a bomb on a security-force base inside Northern Ireland. The following October the IRA kidnapped the industrialist Dr Tiede Herrema and held him hostage for the release from prison of Dr Dugdale and two other republicans, Kevin Mallon and James Hyland. The kidnappers were caught and Dr Herrema freed.
Republican Sinn Fein, the group which broke away from the Provisional republican movement in 1986, was represented by its leader, Mr Ruairi O Bradaigh, and by the Donegal councillor, Mr Joe O'Neill. Mr Rory Dougan represented the 32-County Sovereignty Movement which broke away from the Provisional movement in 1997.
The sermon was preached by Father Seamus Heaney, from Co Westmeath, who described Mr Mac Stiofain as "a man of faith, a man very devoted to the Mass and to confession and caring for people in the Third World". Father Pat Kelly, Father Dwayne Gavin and Father Gerry McCormack assisted.