The lying-in-state of Cardinal Cahal Daly continues today at St Peter’s Cathedral in Belfast.
The Mass of the Dead was celebrated at noon today and Cardinal Daly's remains will lie in state until 9pm.
On Sunday, the lying-in-state will commence at 9am. A Liturgy of the Word and removal of the remains will take place at 3pm. The funeral cortege will travel to Armagh, to arrive for Sunday Mass at 5.30pm at St Patrick's Cathedral, where the cardinal was archbishop and Catholic primate from 1990-1996.
Afterwards there will be a lying-in-state until 10pm.
On Monday, the lying-in-state at St Patrick’s Cathedral will begin at nine o’clock in the morning, continuing until nine o’clock that night. The Office for the Dead will be read there at six o’clock in the evening. Requiem Mass for the Cardinal will be at noon on Tuesday. It will be followed by burial in the cathedral grounds.
Cardinal Daly, who was 92, died peacefully at 6.45pm on New Year’s Eve at the City Hospital in Belfast.
He is survived by his sister Rosaleen and brother Paddy, his sisters-in-law Barbara and Mavis, his nieces and nephews.
His successor as Archbishop of Armagh, the Catholic primate Cardinal Seán Brady, in a tribute, said the influence of Cardinal Daly on the work of the Irish Bishops’ Conference was “vast”, while “at a critical and troubled time in Irish history” he was “firm and courageous in his absolute rejection of violence as a means of achieving political ends”.
President Mary McAleese said Cardinal Daly “showed immense courage in his efforts to advocate for a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Northern Ireland and he was deeply committed to inter-church relations”. He was “an outstanding scholar and writer and maintained his academic interests right up to the time of his death”, she said.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen described Cardinal Daly as “a trenchant supporter of peace” who “determinedly used his influence in every way he could to bring about a peaceful solution” in Northern Ireland.
Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness admitted that Cardinal Daly and the republican movement had never been politically close. “However, in the course of recent years I met with him on numerous occasions, all of which were friendly,” he said.
Former British prime minister Tony Blair said Cardinal Daly’s “life is a real and lasting example of effective religious leadership working to build peace and resolve conflict”.
DUP minister Arlene Foster paid tribute “to his consistent opposition to the use of violence”.