Ex premier attends Magee funeral

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Former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds has attended the funeral of the Reverend Roy Magee, who died at the weekend.

Rev Magee was a key figure in persuading the UDA and UVF to declare their ceasefires in 1994.

Also at the funeral in Dundondald were former UDA leader Andy Tyrie and south Belfast loyalist Jackie McDonald.

Rev Magee, who was brought up in the Ballysillan estate in north Belfast, was 79 and had been suffering from Parkinson's disease.

The clergyman worked in churches in some of the toughest areas of Belfast, before settling in the Dundonald parish near Belfast in 1975.

Rev Magee traced his history of mediating for and between the loyalist paramilitaries to his ministry at Sinclair Seamen's Presbyterian Church in the Docks area of Belfast during the start of the Troubles in 1969.

His influential meetings with the Ulster Volunteer Force and Ulster Defence Association/Ulster Freedom Fighters were not made public until nearly two years before their October 1994 ceasefires.

In an interview he said: "As a minister of the gospel I see myself as a spiritual policeman, encouraging people to live in accordance with the Law of God."

He added: "What I do is nothing more and nothing less than an extension of my pastoral work."

In 2004, he was awarded an OBE in recognition of his work.