![\"\"](\"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/2.43542995.jpg\")
A veteran republican who opposed the peace process died \u201cunrepentant\u201d, hundreds of mourners in West Belfast were told.<\/p>\nA veteran republican who opposed the peace process died \u201cunrepentant\u201d, hundreds of mourners in West Belfast were told.<\/p>\n
Billy McKee, who died on Tuesday aged 97, was a founding member of the Provisional IRA.<\/p>\n
His funeral was held on Saturday at St Peter\u2019s Cathedral.<\/p>\n
Mr McKee\u2019s coffin was carried from the church in a gun carriage, with men wearing the military-style black berets associated with the IRA part of the procession.<\/p>\n
A eulogy was read at a memorial garden on the Falls Road, a short distance from the church.<\/p>\n
A mourner said: \u201cBilly remained steadfast to the end and had no regrets, despite all the hardship that he endured for his republicanism.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor him it was not for a new Ireland or an agreed Ireland, it was for a 32-county independent republic that was declared at the front of the General Post Office in 1916.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was a former \u201cOfficer Commanding\u201d of the IRA and involved with D Company of the organisation, the spokesman added.<\/p>\n
Mr McKee was also a devout Catholic who went to Mass every day, and whose deafness meant his prayers were audible to other worshipers.<\/p>\n
The address said: \u201cWe will remember you with pride.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou were one in a million and a true republican to the end \u2013 unbowed, unbroken, and most of all \u2013 unrepentant.\u201d<\/p>\n
A beret and gloves were carried on a coffin draped in a green and yellow flag which bore the words \u201cErin Go Bragh\u201d, expressing allegiance to Ireland.<\/p>\n
An Irish bagpiper played and a crowd which had gathered on the street corner near the cathedral applauded.<\/p>\n
His sister Theresa is the only surviving sibling and was among close relatives who attended the funeral.<\/p>\n
Some mourners lit candles in his memory.<\/p>\n
A priest at the service, Fr Michael Murtagh, said: \u201cHe was a known republican.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t deny it, nor do we glorify it, neither do we demonize it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not here to judge or condemn.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said nobody present wanted to add to the pain of many victims of the conflict over past decades.<\/p>\n
\u201cNeither are we here to add to the pain of his immediate family who are burying a brother, an uncle, a family member, with the respect that deserves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr McKee joined a republican youth organization as a teenager.<\/p>\n
He was later imprisoned.<\/p>\n
In 1940 he was jailed for six years for treason and spent it in the Crumlin Road Jail.<\/p>\n
In the 1950s and 1960s he spent more time in the old prison in North Belfast.<\/p>\n
The eulogy said: \u201cThis did not deter or shake his republican beliefs. Indeed it made him more determined to see an end to British rule in our country.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Civil Rights movement and demands for Catholic equality in 1968 catapulted Mr McKee to the forefront of the republican movement at a time when much of the IRA was moving towards communism.<\/p>\n
The Belfast-based Provisional IRA demurred from the leftward shift and was to eclipse the rest of the organisation.<\/p>\n
A gun was found in his car and he was imprisoned. He went on hunger strike for political status, which was eventually granted.<\/p>\n
The address said: \u201cHe was involved in all levels of the republican movement carrying the fight to the Brits.\u201d<\/p>\n
He engaged with the British Government during the IRA ceasefire of 1975.<\/p>\n
His leadership was \u201cundermined\u201d and in the late 1970s he was moved against, the address said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBilly remained faithful and his republicanism never diminished.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe stayed faithful, loyal to the Proclamation (of an Irish Republic) and the Republic which our dead patriots gave their lives for, unlike those who moved against him.\u201d<\/p>\n