A TRICOLOUR was allowed to remain on Martin McGuinness's coffin during his funeral to honour him in a similar way to a southern head of state, the Catholic Church has said.
The flag remained draped across the former deputy first minister's coffin throughout his Requiem Mass at St Columba's Church, Long Tower, Derry.
It is rare for the Catholic Church to permit the use of flags on a coffin inside a church during a funeral service.
In Pictures: Martin McGuinness's funeral in Derry
During the Troubles, it imposed a ban on flags and paramilitary trappings – such as a beret and black gloves – inside churches.
Nowadays, mourners are usually asked to remove flags and other emblems from the coffin before it is carried into the church building.
However, Bishop Donal McKeown said that by treating Mr McGuinness similarly to a president or taoiseach, the Derry diocese was "following the practice that has been standard and custom in Ireland for almost a century".
In a statement, he said the funeral Mass "received much planning" and the decision was taken due to several factors.
These were that Mr McGuinness was former deputy first minister; President Michael D Higgins and Taoiseach Enda Kenny were attending; British government representatives were attending; leaders of the main Stormont parties were in attendance; and the tricolour was flown at half mast over the Houses of the Oireachtas in Dublin, even though Mr McGuinness had not been a member of the Oireachtas.
Bishop McKeown said that on this basis "it was decided that the deceased should be given a comparable honour to that which would have been accorded to a former or serving head of state or government of Ireland (Uachtarán or Taoiseach)".
"This is in recognition, not of an individual, but of a position that they held in public life," he said.
"The diocese was thus following the practice that has been standard and custom in Ireland for almost a century."
Almost exactly 30 years ago, St Columba's Church was the backdrop for a significant clash between the IRA and the Catholic Church during the Troubles.
On March 24, 1987, two masked IRA gunmen fired a volley of shots inside the church grounds during the funeral of IRA man Gerard Logue.
The following week the then Bishop of Derry, Edward Daly, announced a ban on any paramilitary trappings such as black gloves and berets being brought into church grounds in the Derry diocese during republican paramilitary funerals.
Following pressure from IRA members' families, the IRA eventually agreed to remove paramilitary trappings from coffins prior to the coffins being brought into church grounds.
