500 republicans attend funeral of Dolours Price
Her sister, Marian, who is in prison accused of dissident republican activity, was not at the service at St Agnes Church in Andersonstown, west Belfast.
Price, 62, was an unrepentant republican hardliner who fell out with Sinn Féin after the party endorsed the Northern Ireland peace process, encouraged the IRA to give up its guns, and embraced power-sharing with unionists at Stormont.
No public representatives from the mainstream republican movement were at the ceremony.
In his address, Fr Raymond Murray, who had been prison chaplain at Armagh jail, told mourners that Price and her sister were like bosom twins.
He said: “Dolours’s family can relate her nature and her talent, both of which is outside the knowledge and understanding of those who did not know her personally.
“She was clever and witty, full of fun, and held people enthralled by her conversation. She was very devoted to her parents.”
Price’s father, Albert, had also been a prominent IRA member and was interned by the Government at the Curragh during the 1950s.
Black flags were erected on lamp posts across Andersonstown yesterday. There was also a police presence in the area.
Price, the former wife of actor Stephen Rea, was convicted and jailed along with her sister for the 1973 car bomb attack on London’s Central Criminal Court in which one man died and more than 200 people were injured.
She spent eight years in jail, including several weeks on hunger strike, before being released in 1980.
In recent years, she clashed with Sinn Féin president and TD Gerry Adams over her allegations that he had been her IRA officer commanding during the early 1970s.
Among those who took part in yesterday’s funeral service was Hugh Feeney, who was also jailed in connection with the Old Bailey bombing.
Mr Adams has always denied being a member of the IRA.
He said he was saddened by Price’s death.
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