Council apologises to families over Storey cremation service
Belfast City Council has apologised to eight families who were denied the same size of cremation service as IRA veteran Bobby Storey on the day of his funeral.
It has emerged that Mr Storey's service at Roselawn Cemetery in east Belfast last Tuesday was the only one of nine that day where 30 people were allowed to attend an outdoor service on site.
The coronavirus regulations on outdoor gatherings in Northern Ireland changed from 10 to 30 people late on Monday.
The council said it took an operational decision to apply the new restriction from Mr Storey's cremation onwards - 3.30pm on Tuesday.
However, eight other families were denied access to cremations that took place earlier on the same day.
The council said its decision was an “error of judgment”.
The council had already faced criticism last week after it emerged that some staff had been sent home early from Roselawn ahead of Mr Storey’s cremation.
The council said: “Executive regulations were changed for outdoor services on Monday night (29 June) - coming into effect at 11pm.
“We were informed by the Executive Office on Monday afternoon, enabling us to start communications with funeral directors. This is normal practice.
“An operational decision was made that, for cremations, the new procedures would apply from the cremation of Bobby Storey onwards.”
The council added: “We accept in hindsight that this was an error of judgment.
“This meant that only one of the nine cremation services on Tuesday had 30 people in attendance; there were four burial services and these burial services had up to 30 in attendance.
“There were eight cremation services affected.
“We are contacting these families and are deeply sorry for how this error will have affected them.”
The funeral of Bobby Storey has also led to controversy the attendance of several senior Sinn Féin figures, including deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill.
The Sinn Féin vice president has indicated she has no intention of stepping down, despite calls for her to do so over concerns mourners at the leading republican’s funeral broke Covid-19 restrictions.
Large crowds lined the streets of west Belfast as the cortege passed and many more gathered for a service in Milltown Cemetery.