The new Taoiseach, Enda Kenny is to break with years of tradition by attending the funeral of murdered Catholic policeman Ronan Kerr's funeral today.

The non attendance of politicians at the funeral of those perceived as belonging to the 'other' side - i.e Protestants and Catholic funerals and vice versa has been one of the last bastions of the kind of religious apartheid that used to be so commonplace in Northern Ireland.

Good on him - the right move at the right time.

On the assumption that the funeral is taking place in a Catholic Church (although I don’t know if it is), then I think Peter Robinson’s intention to attend is much more newsworthy.

I think that the attendance of political figures from across the political, religious and national divides can only be a good thing for peace.

I have one very big caveat to this. This is a time of loss and grief for his family. I hope that the political issues and resultant media scrum don’t add too much to their grief. For all the political and media interest, it is still a funeral of an individual.

The guy that died was a Catholic and not a unionist so it's irrelevant really. If it was a unionist funeral (Ian Paisley, please God let it happen) it would be worth commenting on but considering this policeman is neither Protestant or a unionist it's not.

He'd have to be a unionist to be 'on the other side' he wasn't, therefore it's irrelevant.