Ronan MacLochlainn, the dissident Provisional IRA figure shot during Friday's confrontation between alleged armed robbers and gardai in Co Wicklow, is to be buried tomorrow in north Dublin.
His remains leave the undertakers in Finglas this morning for a house in Sillogue Road, and from there to Mass in Ballymun tomorrow morning.
Gardai are expected to monitor the proceedings to see signs of the level of dissent against the Provisional IRA/Sinn Fein leadership.
According to a security source, many Provisional IRA figures in Dublin have defected to elements opposed to the Belfast Agreement and, particularly, the proposal of the movement's leadership that elected Sinn Fein representatives could take seats in a Stormont Assembly.
Such elements have already been behind a number of attacks, particularly along the east coast.
The most serious of these planned attacks, however, have been intercepted by Garda Special Branch operations. The most successful of these was the interception of a 1,000 lb car bomb at Dun Laoghaire harbour on April 2nd. Members of the Garda's Emergency Response Unit who were responsible for seizing the bomb at Dun Laoghaire were also involved in the armed confrontation on Friday.
Another incident was the attempted detonation of a huge bomb in the North over the St Patrick's Day period when the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, was in Washington.
There is now speculation that support for such groups is spreading to Belfast where, at the weekend, dissidents carried out a mortar attack on the RUC station on Grosvenor Road. They may also have been responsible for the attempted car bombing in Lisburn last week and for another large bomb found by the RUC in west Belfast last month.
It is believed the dissident IRA group which supports the stance of the internal Sinn Fein group which calls itself the 32-County Sovereignty was responsible for the operation on Friday.
There is now some concern that this group, which appeared to be insignificant at the start of this year, is now gathering support among disaffected Provisional IRA members who are opposed to the agreement and to the leadership of Mr Adams and Mr Martin McGuinness.
Support for the dissidents appears to have spread from the south Armagh/north Louth area to Dublin, parts of the midlands and the south-west. It is also beginning to attract figures who would be well thought of in republican paramilitary circles.
MacLochlainn (28), married with three sons, had been in the Provisional IRA since his teens. His mother, Ms Roisin McLaughlin, from north Belfast, was wanted by the RUC in relation to the murder of three British soldiers and attempted murder of a fourth in a flat on the Antrim Road, Belfast, in 1973. An attempt the same year to extradite her from the Republic failed.
MacLochlainn was shot after refusing to drop his gun when the Garda ERU unit surrounded men on the Wexford to Dublin road at 5.15 p.m. on Friday. According to Garda sources, he attempted to hijack a passing car and was shot as he pointed his handgun at the driver, an elderly man.