Marian Price at Real IRA rally in Derry

CONVICTED IRA bomber Marian Price has been refused compassionate bail to attend her sister’s Delours funeral next week.

The decision was revealed on Friday night by the family of Price who is currently awaiting trial in connection with the murder of two soldiers at Massereene barracks.

It came hours after Judge David McFarland had earlier granted her bail to attend the funeral of IRA bomber sister Delours.

However, his decision did not mean that she would be granted immediate release from Belfast City Hospital where she is being treated.

Her freedom for a few hours next Wednesday for the 11 am funeral mass in west Belfast depended on whether Parole Commissioners agreed to release her if they believed she posed no risk to public safety or no risk of sight.

In a statement on Friday night, her family said: “We have received news that Marian Price’s application for compassionate parole following the death of her sister Delours has been refused despite her bail granted bail earlier today.

“Given Marian’s current health issues it is laughable that she would pose any safety or flight risk.

Marian Price refused compassionate bail for sister’s funeral

“We feel this decision is nothing more than a continuance of a vicious and vindictive campaign on the part of Prison Service, the Department of Justice, the British Secretary of State and MI5 to destroy Marian both physically and mentally.

“We would urge all right thinking people to utterly condemn this blatant breach of Marian’s fundamental human rights.”

Delours Price, who was also convicted along with her sister over the 1973 fatal car-bomb attack on the old Bailey in London, was found dead on Thursday at her Malahide home in Co Dublin.

At this stage, gardaí are not treating Wednesday night’s discovery of her body as suspicious.

But it is believed she may have died from a drugs overdose.

Her remains returned to west Belfast on Friday afternoon and her funeral will take place on Monday at St Agnes Catholic Church.

Former IRA bomber Dolours Price found dead in Dublin

In court on Friday, there was confusion as to whether or not 58-year-old McGlinchey was already on bail in relation to the two sets of charges she is facing.

While Judge David McFarland granted bail, he added that it would be up to the Parole Commissioners whether or not she is to be released.

Marian Price McGlinchey, of no fixed address, stands accused of providing a mobile telephone for the purpose of terrorism – in relation to the murders of two soldiers at Massareene barracks in Antrim in 2009.

She is also charged with aiding and abetting a meeting in support of a proscribed organisation, after being accused of holding a speech for a masked man at a dissident republican rally in 2011.

She denies the charges.

McGlinchey had been granted bail in 2011, but was not released due to the then Secretary of State Owen Paterson’s separate decision to revoke her early release licence.