February 2, 1996
Web posted at: 11:40 p.m. EST (0440 GMT)
From Correspondent Margaret Lowrie
BELFAST, Northern Ireland (CNN) -- Friends and relatives of slain Irish National Liberation Army leader Gino Gallagher faced off with riot police for nearly 24 hours before they were allowed to take his Irish flag-draped coffin to its final resting place Friday.
The clash began outside Gallagher's home Thursday when police would not allow the outlawed INLA, a splinter of the Irish Republican Army, to be publicly honored. The INLA fiercely opposes the cease-fire the IRA called in 1994.
Gallagher was shot and killed Tuesday by an unknown gunman. Police suspect one of the INLA's own was the trigger man.
It was the 32-year-old anti-British militant's wish to be escorted by an INLA "honor guard" in masks, sunglasses, and berets.
Distraught mourners clashed with police overnight in the narrow cold streets outside Gallagher's home. On Friday, professional mediators and a Catholic priest were called in to negotiate between a growing number of both mourners and police.
The result was that the guard, without masks, accompanied Gallagher's casket by car to the Milltown Cemetery 2 miles away in west Belfast. More than 20 INLA members are buried there, many of them killed in internal clashes.
Among the nearly 1,000 mourners were members of the IRA's political wing, Sinn Fein, who had headed up the crowd outside Gallagher's home Thursday to make a stand against the predominantly Protestant police.
Protestant politicians complained that the cease-fire was broken Friday when someone fired 57 shots at a part-time policeman's home in Moy, 40 miles west of Belfast. No one was injured.
The INLA was accused of staging the attack as a retaliation for the clash over Gallagher's funeral.
It was the first attack on a security forces member since the IRA cease-fire began on September 1 1994.
A British proposal for elections in Northern Ireland last week took most other key players in the peace process by surprise. The Irish government was particularly angry, since Dublin wasn't consulted.
But a week later, after a flurry of meetings with Irish officials, Northern Irish Catholics, and Northern Irish Protestants, Britain looks to have pulled off a possible political coup.
"In the past week, the British government has managed to switch the agenda from a discussion of whether or not the elections will take place to pretty much when and if and how," said Bernard Purcell of the Irish Independent newspaper.
The still-vague proposal calls for voters in Northern Ireland to elect delegates to represent them at peace talks before the year is over.
While Dublin no longer rejects the idea, it still needs some convincing. "I think that people who would go into an election process would want to be very clear as to what happens -- and that there are no further hurdles to be jumped after an election process," said Irish Foreign Minister Dick Spring.
Analysts say that Britain's election proposal effectively sidelines -- at least for now -- former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell's report recommending that talks begin immediately.
It could also buy another year of peace, because it could take that long to get things going.
Northern Ireland's Protestants want the elections, but have concerns over the decommissioning of weapons. They say the disarmament process must parallel the talks, Purcell said, and that it will have to get off the rapid start for there to be realistic progress in negotiations with Unionists.
Sinn Fein flatly rejects elections.
The U.S. says it didn't pressure the group's leader, Gerry Adams, when he met with President Bill Clinton this week.
But if Britain persuades the Irish and Northern Ireland's moderate Catholics to take part, it could become difficult for Adams to continue to say no.
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