prison chapel. "I met the bravest of the brave this morning", he said, "Tom Williams walked to that scaffold without a tremor in his body. The only people who were shaking were us and the hangman". Father Alexis concluded by saying to the remaining prisoners, "I’ve one other thing to say to you. Don’t pray for Tom Williams, pray to him, for at this moment Tom is a saint in heaven." His funeral held on 19 January 2000 was attended by thousands, with Williams buried at Milltown Cemetery. Joe Cahill, Tom's cell mate, and John Oliver, sentenced to death with Tom but later reprieved, as well as Madge McConville, who had been arrested with Tom, Greta McGlone, Billy McKee, Eddie Keenan and perhaps least known, Nell Morgan, Tom's girlfriend at the time of his death, were all present. Six senior Sinn Féin members including Gerry Adams were also present in St Paul's Church on the Lower Falls Road for the Mass. Tom's boyhood friend and the man who introduced him to the Republican Movement, Alfie Hannaway, was unable to attend the funeral due to ill health. Tom's funeral Mass was celebrated by Rev Fr Paddy O'Donnell, C.Ss.R., a Redemptorist Priest from Clonard Monastery. In Irish republican culture He is remembered in a ballad Tom Williams. Various recordings have been made, most notably by the Flying Column, and by Éire Óg who preamble their version with the story of the campaign to release his body. The now disbanded, Volunteer Tom Williams Republican Flute Band from Glasgow, Scotland was named in his memory as was the Tom Williams Camogie Club in Belfast References 1923 births 1942 deaths Irish Republican Army (1922–1969) members Executed Irish people Irish people convicted of murdering police officers People executed by Northern Ireland People convicted of murder by Northern Ireland People executed for murdering police officers Paramilitaries from Belfast 1942 in Northern Ireland 1942 murders in the United Kingdom 1940s murders in Northern Ireland