The widow of murdered Real IRA chief Joe O'Connor has hit out at the dissident group for using images of his funeral for fundraising.
Nicola O'Connor last night moved to distance her family from the organisation behind the Omagh bombing despite her husband's prominent role within the dissident group.
The 26-year-old, who was the leader of the Real IRA in west Belfast, was gunned down as he sat in a car outside his mother's house in Ballymurphy on October 13 2000.
A calendar has recently been published in support of the Real IRA in republican areas of Derry – where the organisation has strong backing – carrying the warning "See you in the New Year".
Last night Mrs O'Connor said the calendar showed a picture of her husband's funeral with a masked man firing a pistol over the coffin.
Such was her outrage that the mother-of- four confronted the Real IRA demanding the withdrawal of the calendar. However, the paramilitary group told her it had been sold out.
Mrs O'Connor, who was just three months pregnant when her husband was shot dead, said she abhorred all violence.
"It (the calendar) is a total disgrace. They are labelling me and my kids," she said.
"What are people going to think of me and my children over any links to the Real IRA? They are trying to turn him into a martyr – not for Joe's sake – but to make money.
"I just want Joe put to rest and I want my boys to live a normal life."
The 28-year-old, above, claimed that just hours before his death her husband had promised to sever links with the Real IRA and communicate this to the leadership directly in Derry.
"I have been put through a really bad time. It has been really hard for my kids – even before Joe's death," she said.
"Joe and I separated before because I didn't accept his organisation."
The publication of the calendar sparked outrage among relatives of the 29 people killed in the 1998 Omagh bombing which included a woman pregnant with twins.
Michael Gallagher, whose son Aidan was killed in the blast, described the calendar as "sick and depraved" and called on people not to buy it saying it was a fundraising exercise to support murder.
Last October the police investigation into the murder of Joe O'Connor was criticised during an inquest into his death. At the inquest a police officer confirmed the suspicions of the victim's family that the Provisional IRA was behind the murder – a claim consistently denied by mainstream republicans.
