Senior Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty has defended his attendance at the funeral of former Provisional IRA member Brendan ‘Bik’ McFarlane, saying “people have the right to remember their dead”.
Mr Doherty said on Tuesday that he attended because McFarlane was a “friend” who he has known since the early days of the peace process.
There has been criticism of Sinn Féin tributes to McFarlane (74), who died last month following a short illness.
He was the IRA commander in the Maze prison during the 1981 hunger strikes.
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McFarlane was imprisoned there for his part in a 1975 IRA attack at a pub in the Protestant Shankill Road area of Belfast. Five people were killed.
He and two others carried out a bomb and gun attack on the pub they suspected was being used by Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) members.
Two people were shot dead outside the pub, while three more died and dozens were injured in a subsequent explosion.
[ Who was Bik McFarlane? The IRA figure linked to notorious kidnappingOpens in new window ]
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald paid tribute to McFarlane after his death, saying “we have lost a great patriot who lived his life for the freedom and unity of Ireland”.
Former Fine Gael justice minister Charlie Flanagan later described her remarks as “nauseating”. He said McFarlane was “directly and heavily involved in vicious sectarian crimes”.
DUP MLA Phillip Brett told the Northern Ireland Assembly that public commentary from Sinn Féin after McFarlane’s death was “disgraceful”.
Mr Doherty was among a number of Sinn Féin members, including former leader Gerry Adams, who attended McFarlane’s funeral last week.
On Tuesday, Mr Doherty told reporters at Leinster House he had known McFarlane 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,” he said.
“So I attended, as anybody would do, if you knew somebody, to pay your respects to the family, to somebody who you knew, and to do that as people, right across the board and right across society, do.”
McFarlane was also the chief suspect in the kidnapping of the businessman Don Tidey, who was held in Derrada Wood in Co Leitrim, and the murder of Pte Patrick Kelly and Recruit Garda Gary Sheehan, who were shot dead during Mr Tidey’s rescue on December 16th, 1983.
McFarlane’s fingerprints were found on three items recovered from the hideout. He was arrested in 1998 and charged with falsely imprisoning Tidey, possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life and possession of a firearm for an unlawful purpose at Derrada Wood.
The case against McFarlane collapsed in 2008 as a confession allegedly made in custody was deemed inadmissible because of the passage of time.
