Watch: Large crowds attend Billy McKee funeral

A large crowd attended the funeral of Provisional IRA founder Billy McKee at the weekend.

The 97-year- old republican died in the early hours of last Tuesday morning at a west Belfast nursing home after a short illness.

Mourners packed into St Peter’s Cathedral on Saturday for Requiem Mass while hundreds more stood outside the west Belfast church.

Mr McKee was a founding member of the Provisional IRA and was the organisation's first ‘officer commanding' in Belfast.

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He also sat on the organisation’s ‘army council' before being sidelined in the late 1970s.

Born months after partition in 1921, he had been an active republican since the 1930s.

He joined the IRA's youth wing, Na Fianna hÉireann, in 1936 at the age of 15 and was imprisoned in every decade between the 1930s and the 1970s.

During Requiem Mass Fr Michael Murtagh revealed that Mr McKee was baptised and received the early sacraments, including Holy Communion and confirmation, at the cathedral.

He said it was known that Mr McKee came from a republican background and spoke about his commitment to his Catholic faith.

“Billy was a strict daily Mass goer,” he said.

“He was a man of prayer, he prayed many times a day, he prayed every day.”

After Requiem Mass his coffin was draped with a flag associated with the United Irishmen on which a beret and gloves were also placed.

His coffin was then moved from the church grounds on a specially made carriage.

Several dozen men and women wearing black jackets bearing the logo ‘D Coy' - believed to be a reference to 'D Company Ex Prisoners' Association' – formed a guard of honour.

The group holds an annual Easter commemoration in west Belfast and maintains the republican garden of remembrance on the Falls Road, which remembers former members of the IRA's 'D Company' based in the area.

Hundreds of mourners who lined the streets outside the church broke into applause as the cortege passed.

Several prominent republicans looked on including leading Saoradh member Dee Fennell and north Belfast republican Sean Kelly, who was convicted for his part in the 1993 Shankill bomb.

At the garden of remembrance on the Falls Road the cortege was greeted by a republican colour party before a short ceremony was held.

During a short address prominent Belfast republican Frank Dempsey described Mr McKee as “unbowed, unbroken and unrepentant”.

“Billy remained steadfast to the end and had no regrets despite all the hardship that he endured for his republicanism,” he said.

“For him it was not for a new Ireland or an agreed Ireland.

“It was for a 32 county independent republic that was declared at the front of the GPO in 1916.”

After the ‘Last Post’ was played the guard of honour then accompanied the cortege along the Falls Road to Milltown Cemetery.

Several PSNI vehicles fitted with CCTV cameras were located a points overlooking the procession and burial ground.

Once inside Milltown Cemetery Mr McKee’s remains were brought to his family’s burial plot.

A single white lily, a republican symbol linked to the 1916 Easter Rising, was then placed on his coffin before it was lowered into the ground.

The graveside oration was delivered by senior Republican Sinn Féin representative Dan Hogan, a life-long friend of Mr McKee, who had travelled from Co Mayo.

“Billy McKee was true to the second Dáil Éireann and the first Dáil Éireann that voted overwhelmingly for reunification of our country and he held that belief right up until his death.

“And anybody who considers himself to be a republican knows that the political route never worked.”

He said Mr McKee never compromised on his beliefs.

“Billy McKee has left a seed, he was unbowed, he was unbought and he never could be bought…. Billy McKee was a physical force man, nothing more and nothing less.”