PRESIDENT Mary McAleese and Taoiseach Brian Cowen will be among the several hundred mourners attending the funeral this afternoon of Cardinal Cahal Daly in Armagh city.
The Catholic primate, Cardinal Seán Brady, will be the chief celebrant in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh, for the requiem Mass for Cardinal Daly, who died last Thursday, aged 92.
Pope Benedict XVI nominated Cardinal Brady to celebrate the Mass and to be his personal representative at the ceremony.
After the final prayer of the Mass, Fr Eugene Sweeney, cathedral administrator and former diocesan secretary to Cardinal Daly when he was archbishop of Armagh, will read a message of sympathy from Pope Benedict.
Hundreds of people paid their respects in St Patrick’s Cathedral yesterday, where Cardinal Daly’s body lay in state until 9pm.
He will be buried today on the cathedral grounds close to the grave of his predecessor cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich.
Among the mourners today will be representatives from the main Protestant churches and members of Cardinal Daly’s family, including his brother Patrick and sister Rosaleen.
Northern Secretary Shaun Woodward and security minister Paul Goggins are also due to attend the funeral, as is Sinn Féin Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, who in the past would have had serious differences with Cardinal Daly over his opposition to IRA violence.
DUP First Minister Peter Robinson is not expected to attend.
Mr Robinson is taking time out from politics to deal with personal issues after his wife Iris stepped down from public life due to ill health.
Cardinal Daly was appointed as archbishop of Armagh and primate of all-Ireland on December 16th, 1990, and served until his retirement, at the age of 79, when he was succeeded by the then archbishop Brady on October 1st, 1996.
Cardinal Daly was created a cardinal by the late Pope John Paul II on June 28th, 1991.