FUNERAL OF JOE CAHILL

The funeral was held in West Belfast this morning of veteran
republican Joe Cahill, who died last week.

Mr Cahill was buried at Milltown Cemetery in one of the largest
republican funerals in Belfast since the death of Bobby Sands in
1981.

The ceremony, at St John's Church, Falls Road, was attended by
Sinn Fein's entire leadership and thousands of Sinn Fein
members and supporters from throughout Ireland.

Among those carrying Mr Cahill's Tricolour-draped coffin on the
short procession from his home to the church were Sinn Fein's Mr
Gerry Adams and Mr Martin McGuinness. The cortege was flanked by
an IRA colour party in black berets and combat uniforms.

A lone piper headed the huge procession stewarded by republicans
in white shirts and black ties.

Mr Cahill, who died on Friday aged 84, was a pivotal figure in
the Republican Movement in the second half of the 20th century.

He was instrumental in setting up the Provisional IRA in 1970
when the movement split. He was elected to the first army
council and subsequently became the IRA commander in Belfast.

Mr Cahill was imprisoned several times for his beliefs, and is
regarded as being instrumental in securing the IRA ceasefire
almost exactly ten years ago.

DES WILSON HOMILY

In his funeral service homily, Father Des Wilson praised
Cahill's bravery and struggle to overcome the refusal of basic
rights for many in the Six Counties.

He told a packed St John's Church: "The history of the years in
which Joe lived is like a history of horrors.

"But whatever the crisis, there were men and women like Joe and
his companions who responded to the needs of those people who
had not created war but too often were the victims of it."

Father Wilson told how the former IRA chief would confront
danger rather than walk away.

"But like so many of his fellow citizens, Joe was never given a
city to live in which was worthy of his generosity or his
courage," the priest said.

"And he came to believe that the powerful ones of this earth had
sometimes to be met with their own weapons.

"For that he faced and suffered imprisonment, and faced and
suffered even the sentence of death."

Despite his violent background, which saw Cahill jailed for his
part in shooting dead a police officer and later for
gun-running, mourners heard how he switched to championing the
peace process.

Father Wilson added: "Joe had to make moral choices in his life,
very difficult moral choices which cost him dearly. "The last
years of his life were spent helping to open the way towards a
peace and stability such as we have never enjoyed before."

One anecdote recalled during the service involved Cahill joining
a delegation from the republican movement who met Methodist
Church representatives in a bid to ease tension.

Father Wilson, who helped set up the talks, said: "We were glad
to do it and when the meeting took place Joe was there, but he
insisted that, as a man of action, rather than words, he would
say little. But what he said was wise and generous."


ADAMS ORATION

Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams gave the oration at the grave.
In his speech, he paid particular tribute to Mr Cahill's widow
Annie, and the Cahill family,

Recalling Mr Cahill's life in struggle, Mr Adams said that
despite his worsening asbestosis, contracted while a shipyward
worker in Belfast, he was still fully attuned to recent
setbacks.

"Joe knew that for a peace process to succeed it must be
nurtured particularly by those in positions of power. He was not
surprised at the explosion of nationalist anger in Ardoyne in
recent weeks.

"He told me to tell Tony Blair, and I did, that the British
government is failing the peace process. Joe's generation were
beaten off the streets of this city for decades by the combined
might of the corporate state. In his younger days even Easter
commemorations were outlawed. Any dissent from the status quo
was banned.

Let those in power note that we are not ever going back to the
old days of second class citizens.

Uncle Joe knew those days were over because we were off our
knees and he was proud to have played a part in creating today's
confident, magnanimous and assertive nationalism.

The Irish and British governments should take note of what Joe
Cahill said. If an 84 year old veteran activist, with a
knowledge of all the difficulties of struggle, if someone who's
been through it all, believes that a British government is
failing the peace process then what must an 18 or 19 year old
think?"


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The following is the text of Mr Adams's oration at the funeral:
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Ta muid le cheile ag uaigh Joe Cahill. Le cheile mar chlann mor
ag faire amach da cheile. Mar chairde inar gcroithe, inar
n-anamacha, inar bhfiseanna. Le cheile le Annie agus paisti Joe
agus Annie. Le cheile leis an phobal is i measc an phobail. Is
ocaid mor an torramh seo, ocaid mor inar saol agus i saol ar
stracailt. Ba mhaith liom buiochas a thabairt d'achan duine
anseo.

Is bfeidir liom a ra gan amhras go mbeadh uncail Joe sasta
scaifte mor mar seo a fheiceail.

Everybody here and most certainly the people who know Joe Cahill
will have a story to tell. Joe was a multi-dimensional person.
He was a husband, a father, a grandfather, a great grandfather,
a brother, an uncle, a comrade, and a friend. He was also a
story teller and he would delight in all the stories that were
told in the wake house and in homes across this island and the
USA and in the corridors of the British establishment, as news
of his death spread.

Joe lived a long life and it's quite impossible to sum that life
up in a few words.

I don't believe in eulogising the dead but I do believe in
celebrating life and particularly a life well lived - a life
spent in struggle and in activism.

Of all of us who shared that life, one person deserves our
heartfelt thanks. That person is a wonderful woman, and a
republican in her own right, Annie Cahill.

I have a great gra and admiration for Annie.

On your behalf I want to thank her and her wonderful family. I
also want to thank the extended Cahill clann. All the in-laws
and outlaws, the older people and the young ones, all the
grandchildren, great grandchildren, nieces and nephews.

I first saw Joe Cahill when I was about 14 or 15 going into the
Ard Scoil in Divis Street. Some of you knew him for much longer
than that. I am thinking here of Madge McConville, Willie John
McCorry, Maggie Adams, and Bridget Hannon.

Joe had the great capacity to work with his contemporaries while
relating to much younger people. So when I said that people will
have stories to tell it could be prison stories stretching over
the decades, from his time in the death cell with Tom Williams,
to Mountjoy and Portlaoise, or New York. It could be stories by
his comrades in the IRA, their exploits and difficulties, their
trials and tribulations. It could be stories of travels through
Irish America. Or of Sinn Fein gatherings all over Ireland.
Quite uniquely there will also be stories about Joe Cahill told
by Albert Reynolds, by Tony Blair, by Bill Clinton, and by Col.
Ghaddafi.

I'm very mindful of the fact that in the 1970s when Joe went
back to full time Republican work he was already in his 50's. At
a time when most people would be thinking of retirement he was
back into a rollercoaster of activism and the difficulties of
separation from his family.

He is one, almost the last of that group of people, his
contemporaries who came forward into the bhearna bhaoil in 1969.
People like Jimmy Steel, JB O'Hagan, John Joe McGirl, MacAirt,
Bridie Dolan, Seamus Twomey, Jimmy and Maire Drumm, Billy McKee,
Mary McGuigan, Daithi O Connall, Sean Keenan, Sean MacStiofain,
Ruairi O'Bradaigh, John O'Rawe, and many, many others.

Joe hated being exiled. He was looked after by good people. But
even with dear friends, such as Bob and Bridie Smith, Joe told
me that on Sundays he would drive into the Wicklow Mountains and
think of Annie, his son Tom and the girls. At times, he told me,
he cried to be with them.

He had a great wicked sense of humour and a caustic wit. He was
also withering when it came to dealing with people who he
thought were failing to do their best.

When Joe became active in Sinn Fein he was one of the party's
treasurers. He was scrupulous and extremely stingy with party
funds. In fact his stinginess was legendary. But his logic was
impeccable. If he managed to spend a lifetime in struggle
without spending a proverbial penny of republican money, he
expected everyone else to spend even less.

Joe was a physical force republican. He made no apologies for
that. But like all sensible people who resort to armed struggle
because they feel there is no alternative he was prepared to
defend, support and promote other options when these were
available. Without doubt there would not be a peace process
today without Joe Cahill. And he had no illusions about the
business of building peace. Peace requires justice because peace
is more than the absence of conflict.

Joe understood the necessity of building political strength and
while political strength requires more than electoralism, Joe
spent the recent election count glued to the TV set in his sick
room and he rejoiced and marvelled at Sinn Fein's successes
right across this island. For him the cream on the cake of the
growth of our party north and south was Mary Lou and Bairbre's
election.

His big fear was that the governments would not respect the
people's mandate. His concern was that the establishment, both
Irish and British, would deny and not uphold citizen's rights
and entitlements.

Joe knew that for a peace process to succeed it must be nurtured
particularly by those in positions of power. He was not
surprised at the explosion of nationalist anger in Ardoyne in
recent weeks.

He told me to tell Tony Blair, and I did, that the British
government is failing the peace process. Joe's generation were
beaten off the streets of this city for decades by the combined
might of the corporate state. In his younger days even Easter
commemorations were outlawed. Any dissent from the status quo
was banned.

Let those in power note that we are not ever going back to the
old days of second class citizens.

Uncle Joe knew those days were over because we were off our
knees and he was proud to have played a part in creating today's
confident, magnanimous and assertive nationalism.

The Irish and British governments should take note of what Joe
Cahill said. If an 84 year old veteran activist, with a
knowledge of all the difficulties of struggle, if someone who's
been through it all, believes that a British government is
failing the peace process then what must an 18 or 19 year old
think?

At this time in the process it is the securocrats on the British
side and their allies who are calling the shots and it is
obvious that their agenda is about placating the most sectarian
elements within unionism. The rights of citizens to live free
from sectarianism, as proclaimed in the Good Friday Agreement,
is secondary to the demands of a sectarian mob, because that
mobs instincts are the same as the securocrats. They are against
change. Joe watched recent events in Ardoyne and was not
surprised. Neither should any of us be surprised.

Tony Blair has said if the process isn't going forward it will
go backwards. We have told him in recent times that elements
within his own system, particularly within the NIO, are doing
their best to subvert progress and to encourage the backward
slide.

As September approaches, and negotiations go into a new mode,
the British government has a clear cut choice. Either it stands
with the Good Friday Agreement, and builds a bridge toward
democracy and equality, or it sides with the forces of reaction
as successive British government's did for decades.

There's lots more could be said on this issue but today is a day
for celebrating the life of our friend. In reflecting on what I
was going to say today I thought back on the last occasion that
Joe and I and Annie and Martin McGuinness shared a public
platform.

At that event in Dublin Joe made a wonderful speech. I will
finish by letting him speak for himself. I know that notion
would amuse him. I have talked for long enough at his graveside.
This is in part what he told us that evening. He said:

"I have had a long life and a good life. I have had a lucky life
and I have had a life that many people have helped me in. And if
I started to thank everybody that it was necessary to thank
throughout my life we would be here to morning and you don't
want that. You want to get on with a bit of craic.

We all have dreams and we all have desires. A few weeks ago I
was being released from the Royal Victoria Hospital. As I was
waiting to go down in the lift to the ground floor I happened to
look out through the window and I saw the best sight ever of the
Cave Hill.

I remember looking at the Cave Hill and I remember thinking that
is where it all started. I thought of Tone and his comrades and
what they said and what they planned to do. What struck me most
was that they wanted to change the name of Protestant, Catholic
and Dissenter to Irish people. That started me thinking and then
I thought of the people who came after them. Emmet and what he
tried to do and the message that he left us.

My mind wandered on through the years to the Fenians and one man
stuck out in my mind, not a Fenian, but a man called Francis
Meagher who brought the flag that we all love, our Tricolour. He
said, 'I have brought this flag from the barricades of France
and I am presenting it to the Irish nation. Green represents the
Catholic, the Orange the Protestant and the white the truce
between them'. I hope that one day the hand of Protestant and
Catholic will be united and respect that flag.

Then I thought of the Fenians and I thought of the likes of old
Tom Clarke and what he had gone through in prison. I remembered
that he was the first signatory to the 1916 Proclamation, which
says it all as far as we are concerned. Then I thought of the
30s, 40s and what we went through at that time. The struggle we
put up then and what we were up against. Right throu gh into the
70s.

People have often asked me 'what keeps you going'. I think of
Bobby Sands and Bobby said 'it is that thing inside me that
tells me I'm right'. That's what drives me on. I know we are
right.

I think also what Bobby said about revenge. There is no revenge
on his part. He said that the true revenge would be the laughter
of our children. I think of Tom Williams and the last days that
I spent with him in the condemned cell. I think of that letter
that he wrote out to his comrades, to the then Chief of Staff,
Hugh McAteer. He said the road to freedom would be hard and that
many a hurdle on that road would be very difficult. It has been
a hard struggle but he said 'carry on my comrades until that
certain day'. And that day that he talked about was the dawn of
freedom.

Just one other remark I would like to make about Tom. It was his
desire, as we all talked together when we were under the
sentence of death, that one day our bodies would be taken out of
Crumlin Road and laid to rest in Milltown. The reason I mention
this at all is this is what determination does. This is what
consistency and work does. I personally thought that I would
never see Tom's remains coming out until we got rid of the
British but people worked hard at that. People worked very, very
hard and we got Tom's remains out. So with hard work it shows
what you can do.

I don't want to keep you much longer but I too have a dream. In
2005 we will celebrate the 100th anniversary of Sinn Fein. I am
not saying we are going to get our freedom by then but certainly
we can pave the way by then. We can work hard. And hard work
brings results.

I have been very; very lucky in the women I have met in my life.
I owe a terrible lot to Annie. Never once, never once did she
say don't, stop I don't want any more. She always encouraged me.

Somebody mentioned earlier on did I regret anything. I said no I
didn't except for one thing. My family. That was tough. I often
thought of Annie struggling with Tom, my son, the oldest of the
family, and my six girls Maria, Stephanie, Nuala, Patricia,
Aine, and the baby of the family, Deirdre. They are a credit to
her, they have been a support to me and I thank God for people
like my mother and Annie.

I will just finish off by saying there are so many people to be
thanked for giving me help throughout my life. No matter where I
was, if I was in America, in Europe, if I was down the South I
always met great people who give me support. I am asking for
that continued support not for me but for Sinn Fein, for the
republican movement which is going to bring about the dreams of
Ireland, the dreams of the United Irishmen, the dreams of Emmet,
of the Fenians, of the men of 16. The dreams of those who have
died through the 30s, the 40s and right into the present day and
I am asking you to continue your support. Whatever little you
have done in the past do that wee bit more and we will have our
freedom."

Sin na focail Joe Cahill bigi ag eisteacht leis deanaigi bhur
ndicheall. Comrades, we have lost a great republican and a true
friend but his inspiration, his life, his vision of a new
Ireland, a free Ireland outlives him.

A lot has changed in Joe Cahill's lifetime, not least because of
his contribution.

So let us go from here today recommitted in our resolve to
continue our struggle and to carry on until that certain day.