Funeral of veteran Derry republican Seamus O'Kane to be held tomorrow

The funeral will take place in Derry tomorrow of the veteran republican socialist Seamus O'Kane who died earlier this week, aged 70.

At Mr O'Kane's wake in Glenowen yesterday afternoon, a republican colour party lined up in front of the coffin, and a masked man fired a volley of shots from a rifle. A red flag, featuring the Starry Plough flag, adorned the coffin.

Mr O'Kane had been involved in politics in the city since joining the Young Socialists, in the 1960s. He had previously trained as a Christian Brother for a number of years.

Active in the civil rights movement, he later joined the Official IRA and in 2003 spoke to the Saville Inquiry about the group's activities in and around Bloody Sunday.

Three weeks after Bloody Sunday, the Officials responded by planting a car bomb at Aldershot Barracks in England, which killed seven people, including a military chaplain. Mr O'Kane was arrested in London and questioned about the bombing but was released without charge.

At the time of the Supergrass trials in the 1980s, Mr O'Kane went on the run and lived in Donegal for several years. Initially, he worked in the fishing industry as a deckhand on trawlers out of Killybegs and Greencastle. But he subsequently returned to education as a mature student and qualified as a teacher, working in Donegal Town and, up until his retirement, at St Peter's High School in Creggan.

The Director of the Rosemount Resource Centre, Tommy McCourt, had been a friend of Mr O'Kane's since their schooldays. He said Mr O'Kane would be 'sadly missed'.

"Seamus was very much a character," said Mr McCourt. "He was a highly intelligent individual, who lived by his own principles and views. He was involved in social politics from the early civil rights days right through until very recently. He will be very badly missed as regards his contributions.

"He was also a very generous person with a real social conscience. He was an only child, and when his mother left him their home at the Brandywell, he handed it over directly to a local family who were desperate to get housed. I remember him saying to me, 'What do I need a house for, Tommy?'"

Mr O'Kane's funeral will leave his Glenowen home tomorrow at 1pm for burial in the City Cemetery.