It is important for people to have a “right to remember their dead”, senior Sinn Fein politician Pearse Doherty said as he defended his decision to attend the funeral of a former IRA man.
Several senior Sinn Fein figures paid tributes to Brendan “Bik” McFarlane following his death last month at the age of 74.
McFarlane was jailed in 1976 for his part in a gun and bomb attack on the Bayardo Bar in Belfast in which five people were killed.
He was subsequently one of 38 IRA prisoners who escaped from the Maze Prison in Co Antrim in 1983.
Brendan ‘Bik’ McFarlane’s daughter Tina speaks to mourners beside his coffin outside the family home in Belfast (Niall Carson/PA)
Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald described him as “a great patriot who lived his life for the freedom and unity of Ireland”.
And Celtic Football Club faced calls to take action after fans at a match this week unfurled a banner which described McFarlane as a “hero”.
Northern Ireland deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly said McFarlane was “no hero” and that it is wrong to “glorify” violence.
The DUP politician added: “I think most people are rightly horrified when they see such a person being referred to as a hero.”
Meanwhile, former justice minister Charlie Flanagan told the Irish Times that McFarlane was “directly and heavily involved in vicious sectarian crimes” and that Sinn Fein had demonstrated a “distance” with acceptance of the rule of law.
Mr Doherty, the party’s deputy leader in the Dail, said he attended the funeral because McFarlane was a friend.
Sinn Fein TD Pearse Doherty said he attended the funeral because Brendan ‘Bik’ McFarlane was a friend (Niall Carson/PA)
Speaking to reporters outside Leinster House on Tuesday, Mr Doherty said: “I attended his funeral because I knew ‘Bik’ McFarlane, he was a friend of mine.
“I’ve known him probably since the days of the peace process. I know he used his influence within republicans to encourage others to buy into the peace process.
“And I think it’s really important that people have the right to remember their dead.
“We also have to remember that there’s a partner, there’s children who buried their loved one last week in relation to that.
“So I attended, as anybody would do, if you knew somebody, to pay your respects to the family, to somebody who you knew, and as people, right across the board and right across society, do.”