DEPUTY FIRST Minister Martin McGuinness has called on dissident republicans to listen to the voice of the people and "pack up and go away".
On the weekend that murdered Derry man Emmet Shiels was buried, the Sinn Féin MP told a republican commemoration in the city that dissident republicans must halt their "self-serving and destructive activities now".
Mr McGuinness said that the dissidents, suspected of murdering Mr Shiels, had reached a fork in the road and had a choice to make: "Choose the peaceful and democratic road to a united Ireland - which is open to them; or they can choose to go down some sort of quasi-military cul-de-sac.
"There is no room for grey areas any longer."
Referring to a vigil for Mr Shiels in Derry last week, Mr McGuinness said the activities of the "micro groups" must stop now.
"These groups should listen to the voice of the people, as was witnessed here on Tuesday night. Pack up and go away," he said.
At the funeral on Saturday of Mr Shiels, the 22-year-old pizza delivery man murdered in Derry's Creggan area in the early hours of Tuesday morning, the Rev Michael Canny said:
"Emmett's death has caused many in our community to speak of their revulsion. Others spoke of how they felt sickened . . .
"The communities in which we find ourselves living have come to forks in the road and pivotal moments many times in the past and will no doubt in the years ahead.
"A fork in the road implies that we have come to a place where we have a choice. We can choose to continue in the direction that we are going or take another way," added Mr Canny.
"Violence is like a cancer in society. Unwittingly, we can provide fertile soil in which it can grow. A cancerous growth can and does kill if it is not checked and treated at an early stage.
"Bringing it under control will involve all of us making a choice for life. We can choose the direction that leads to peace or the direction that leads to destruction," he said.
"Today is a day for the family and friends to grieve and mourn, but as we go from here as individuals and as a community, we must reflect on the choices available and decisions which need to be taken if the death of Emmett is to be a genuine fork-in-the-road moment that we have seized.
"To go from here and do nothing will be equivalent to sleepwalking into the future."
More than 1,000 people attended the funeral, among them Mr Shiels's family and his partner, Petrina Bradley, who is 8½ months pregnant with their son.
Friends of the murder victim flanked the funeral cortege, all of them dressed in Glasgow Celtic shirts bearing the victim's name.
Also among the mourners were police officers investigating the murder, including Det Chief Insp Frankie Taylor who is in charge of the murder investigation.
Senior Sinn Féin and SDLP politicians were also in attendance.
Meanwhile, a 19-year-old man arrested in Derry last Tuesday in connection with Mr Shiels's murder was yesterday released without charge.
Last Thursday, a 33-year-old man was also released without charge.
No one is currently in police custody in connection with the murder.