Irish Bomber Buried As Peace Revives

On the same day an Irish Republican Army man killed by his own bomb was buried here, the prime ministers of Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland said Wednesday that negotiations among all sides over the future of peace in troubled Northern Ireland would take place beginning June 10.

Despite family pleas to stay away, several prominent IRA supporters were in the crowd when Edward O’Brien, 21, was buried in his hometown.

O’Brien died Feb. 18 when a bomb he was carrying exploded, apparently unintentionally, aboard a double-decker bus in central London.

The two prime ministers said that Sinn Fein, the political wing of the Irish Republican Army, would be allowed to participate in the talks, but only if the IRA agreed to restore its cease-fire.

Nine people were injured in the blast, the second linked to the IRA since it called off its 17-month cease-fire on Feb. 9.

His family, which said it had no knowledge of O’Brien’s involvement with the IRA, had said they wanted no display of IRA emblems or ceremony.