Funeral of former senior IRA man Brendan McFarlane takes place 

Mourners attend the funeral of Brendan 'Bik' McFarlane at Milltown Cemetery, Belfast. Picture: Niall Carson/PA Wire

The funeral of former senior IRA man Brendan "Bik" McFarlane was told that his escape from prison "still sends shockwaves" through the British government.

Senior republicans including former Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams, Donegal TD Pearse Doherty, North Belfast MP John Finucane and North Belfast MLA Carál Ní Chuilín were among large crowds who turned out for McFarlane's funeral on Tuesday.

McFarlane, originally from the Ardoyne area of north Belfast, died at the age of 74 after a short illness on Friday.

He took part in one of the biggest escapes in prison history, along with Sinn Féin MLA Gerry Kelly, who delivered the graveside oration at Milltown Cemetery.

Mr Kelly recalled being on the run with McFarlane across Europe, after what he described as an "audacious escape".

"It still sends shockwaves through the British government and was worldwide news," he said.

Mr Kelly said that as a teenager McFarlane had intended to become a priest and entered a seminary in Wales, but returned home to Belfast at the start of The Troubles.

"He decided as many others did at the time that armed resistance was the only way to face an occupying military force," he said, and described the early to mid-1970s as "the darkest years of the conflict".

Brendan McFarlane. Picture: Niall Carson/PA

McFarlane was sent to Maze Prison after being convicted of a deadly bomb attack on a pub in the Protestant Shankill Road area in 1975.

He went on to become the officer in command of the H-Block prisoners during the 1981 hunger strike over conditions in the Maze.

In 1983, he was among 38 IRA inmates who fled the facility in Co Antrim.

They used smuggled guns and knives to overpower prison staff before hijacking a food lorry and driving to the main gate.

He was later recaptured with Mr Kelly in the Netherlands.

"He supported the negotiations for the Good Friday Agreement and used his very strong influence talking to others," Mr Kelly said.

Mr Kelly added: "Irish unity of course will not just happen. We need to make it happen.

"We will achieve a united Ireland, a new republic for the rights and identity of all people living on this island of whatever persuasion or background will be welcomed."

Earlier, the street outside McFarlane's home in the north of the city was filled while a burial service and blessing was conducted by priest Father Gary Donegan.

Mr Adams was among those who took a turn at carrying McFarlane's coffin, which was draped with an Irish flag, along the Cliftonville Road before it was transported by hearse to Milltown Cemetery in west Belfast.

Following his death, Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald described McFarlane as "a giant of Irish republicanism".