The restoration of political power-sharing in Northern Ireland would have been impossible without former senior IRA commander Brian Keenan, Gerry Adams said today.
The Belfast republican, 66, died earlier this week. The west-Belfast father-of-six had been suffering from cancer for some time.
Speaking to mourners in the city today, the Sinn Féin president said Mr Keenan was "pivotal" in key decisions like that to join the police service, paving the way for devolution.
"For now let me say that he was central to securing the support of the IRA leadership and rank and file for a whole series of historic initiatives which made the peace process possible," he said.
"And for the sceptics within unionism, let me remind them that the recent watershed moments in our history, including the election of (the Democratic Unionist leader) Ian Paisley as First Minister, would not have been possible without the work of Brian Keenan and his colleagues."
Family and friends from across Ireland, including Chrissie his wife, his four daughters and two sons and his grandchildren had gathered for the speech in west Belfast's Ballymurphy.
Mr Keenan was cremated at Roselawn cemetery near Belfast. Mr Adams, Sinn Féin Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness and West Tyrone MP Pat Doherty carried the coffin.
Mr Keenan was a former member of the IRA's ruling Army Council and received an 18-year prison sentence in 1980 for conspiring to cause explosions.
He was branded the single biggest threat to the British state by Tony Blair's former head of staff Jonathan Powell.
Mr Keenan was involved in talks on weapons decommissioning with Canadian General John de Chastelain which led to the IRA's 2005 decision to hand over arms.
Mr Keenan joined the group in 1968 following violence in Belfast and Derry. In the early 1970s he controlled the arms of the Belfast IRA as quartermaster and was later accused of organising the bombing campaign in England.
He resigned from the Army Council in 2005 due to ill health. A former trade unionist, he supported the ballot box and the Armalite strategy by which republicans contested elections while engaging in violence.
In a marked progression of tactics, he became the IRA's go-between with the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning.