Eight members of the "Real IRA", in full combat dress, appeared on the streets of west Belfast yesterday to fire a volley of shots over the coffin of Mr Joseph O'Connor, the dissident republican shot dead last week.
It is understood to have been the first public show of strength at a republican funeral since the 1980s.
The armed display took place despite a heavy security presence. Dissident sources claimed that it was to "pay tribute" to the murdered "Real IRA" member and show the Provisionals that "the Real IRA isn't going away".
Hundreds of RUC officers in riot gear saturated the graveyard and a British army helicopter and spotter plane flew overhead.
Mr O'Connor (26) was shot dead outside his family home in Ballymurphy last Friday.
The Provisional IRA has denied responsibility for his death. However, witnesses, his family and the "Real IRA" have insisted that the Provisionals were involved.
About 500 people attended the funeral, including members of the Continuity IRA and INLA and former Provisional IRA prisoners. Mr Brendan Hughes, a former "officer commanding" of the Provisionals' Belfast Brigade, helped to carry the coffin.
Mr Hughes said he was there "to help bury a republican". When asked to comment on the Provisional IRA's denial of involvement in the killing, he said: "I have listened to people on the streets of west Belfast and they don't believe it."
Earlier, Mr Martin McGuinness, of Sinn Fein, described the Provisional IRA's denial of the killing as very important. "They have made statements in the past about very serious matters and people have accepted what they said, so I do accept the statement."
As Mr O'Connor's coffin was being carried from his mother's home in Westcliffe Parade, six "Real IRA" men in combat dress and balaclavas, and two masked women, appeared. Orders were given in Irish and one man produced a handgun and fired three shots over the coffin.
It was the "Real IRA's" second show of strength in west Belfast within 24 hours. On Tuesday night, nine masked men and women, armed with rifles, fired shots in the air in Ballymurphy.
Mr O'Connor's black beret and gloves were laid on the coffin on top of a Tricolour.
A lorry carrying floral tributes led the cortege. A 12-foot wreath proclaimed: "Oglaigh na hEireann - IRA". It was accompanied by a card signed "Second Battalion Belfast Brigade IRA". There were wreaths from the "Derry Brigade", from "Real IRA" prisoners detained in England and on both sides of the Border, and from Republican Sinn Fein and the 32 County Sovereignty Movement, which sources say is the political wing of the "Real IRA".
After Requiem Mass at Corpus Christi Church, the cortege made its way to the City Cemetery.
Former Provisional IRA hunger-striker Ms Marian Price told mourners: "Let there be no doubt, contrary to the deliberate misinformation peddled by the Provisional movement, those responsible for this foul murder have been clearly identified. Shame! Shame on you!"
She said Mr O'Connor had been a loyal republican. "He refused to accept British rule under any guise, irrespective of who administered it, whether it be Peter Mandelson, David Trimble or Martin McGuinness. All are members of the British establishment, all administer it, and now we witness how far the Provos are prepared to go to uphold it."
Ms Price claimed that "Real IRA" members had shown "great restraint under blatant provocation".