It would hardly have seemed likely when Robert McKibben joined the

British Royal Marines five years ago that his untimely death would

become such a poignant symbol of the normalisation of relations between

Britain and Ireland.

As the hearse waited outside St.Mary's Church in Westport, Co Mayo, on a cold clear morning, it waited opposite a memorial to Capt John MacBride who fought against the

British in the Boer War and who was executed for his part in the Easter

Rising.

                                                                                Ancient enmities were forgotten as the people of

Westport turned out in their thousands, not for a soldier who died

fighting for a foreign army in a foreign land, but a local lad who died

tragically and too young.

                                                                                The sight of six Royal Marines

carrying the coffin of an Irishman through the streets of an Irish town

would have been inconceivable a generation ago.

                                                                                It would have

been an occasion for silence, ambivalence and sometimes downright

hostility in the past, but yesterday it was marked respectfully with

every business in the town shutting down along the route.

                                                                                Although

it has a capacity of 1,100, St Mary's Church was overflowing. The

congregation included 60 marines from the Royal Marine Brigade

Reconnaissance Unit, some in uniforms, most in suits.

                                                                                The British ministry of defence was represented by Capt John Holloway of the Royal Navy.

                                                                                They

were joined by Irish soldiers from the 51st Reserve Infantry Battalion,

McKibben's old FCA battalion, and members of the Garda. The chairman of

Westport Town Council Martin Keane also attended.

                                                                                The mourners

were led by his parents, Tony and Gráinne, his sisters Carmel, Rachel

and Maggie, brother Raymond and girlfriend Nicola Sanders.

                                                                                Local

priest Fr Denis Kearney remembered Robert McKibben (32), his colleague

Neil Runsden, who was also killed, and another Royal Marine who was

injured when their 4X4 was struck by a roadside bomb while on patrol in

Helmand province in southern Afghanistan on November 12th.

                                                                                He said those attending the funeral Mass were "expressing the solidarity of the whole community".

                                                                                The

Mass was concelebrated by two of Robert's uncles, Fr Terry O'Malley and

his brother Fr Brendan O'Malley, by Royal Marine chaplain Fr Michael

Sharkey and by local priests.

                                                                                Fr Terry O'Malley said thousands

of people died unnecessarily every day and when they went to Iraq or

Afghanistan their chances of survival "diminished". It was right to

acknowledge and respect his nephew's service. "We salute your life,

your love and your sacrifice," he told the congregation.

                                                                                Delivering the eulogy, Warrant Officer Thomas Robert said Robert was known to his fellow marines as "that big Irish fellow".

                                                                                He praised him as having an "enviable control and relaxed attitude to life, even under the most demanding of conditions".

                                                                                He

retained an "unquenchable passion for his job" which had seen him

through the demands of the Special Forces training course he had

recently passed, one of the most gruelling training regimes in the

British army.

                                                                                He had a "relaxed, genial character who had

touched so many Royal Marines" and who had used his large bulk "to

assist, never to intimidate".

                                                                                Robert missed the west coast of

Ireland and smiled every time he mentioned Ireland, Warrant Officer

Robert said. His comments were greeted by applause.

                                                                                Royal Marine bugler Alaine Shakespeare played the Last Post as Robert McKibben was buried at Aughavale Cemetery yesterday afternoon.