AN IRISH tricolour draped the coffin of fiery Gwent activist Mary Crofton to mark her Republican sympathies and support of the Troops Out of Northern Ireland movement.

Arthur Scargill was among the many who attended the funeral on Monday of the 82-year-old Newport woman at St Mary's Church, Stow Hill, where a Requiem mass was held.

Known as Mary Troops Out, Mrs Crofton, of Sidney Street, was a ceaseless fighter against what she saw as social and political injustice.

Her daughter, also called Mary, said she had discussed the arrangements with St Mary's and it was agreed that the coffin would enter the church, bearing family flowers and the Irish flag.

"She was Irish and she supported the Troops Out movement, so it was very fitting," she said. "She was a wonderful mother and a very strong family person. Seeing that she raced around with a lot of political issues, she still managed to form strong family relationships."

Mrs Crofton was involved in the 1980s steel strike, the Greenham Common protest and the National Health Service protest against the Thatcher government.

In 1985 she formed the Newport Miners' Support Group and helped raise thousands of pounds, never missing a day on the picket lines. For many years she was a nurse at St Woolos Hospital, and until the age of 80 was working at an old people's home.

Peace activist Councillor Ray Davies said: "The self-sacrificing ideals that motivated Mary Crofton are badly needed in a world ravaged by war and threatened by a new arms race."