10 volunteers honoured with State funerals

The State funerals of ten volunteers executed during the War of Independence takes place in Dublin later today.

600 family members, as well as the President, Mary McAleese and the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, will attend a requiem mass before the remains of nine of the men are re-buried in Glasnevin cemetery.

Kevin Barry and nine other volunteers were tried and sentenced to death by military court martial in the 1920s for activities during the War of Independence.

Both the Fine Gael and Labour leaders will attend the service with some reluctance, after criticising the timing of the funerals, coming on the same weekend as Fianna Fail held its Ard Fheis.