UP TO 100,000 people braved wind and rain to attend the funeral of the Northern Ireland and Manchester United football legend George Best in east Belfast yesterday.

Although considerable, the crowds were less than the 500,000 that had been predicted in some quarters. The Northern Ireland Office had warned that it could not allow more than 32,000 people into the Stormont estate but only 25,000 had turned up by the time the gates were closed to the public at 8.30am yesterday.

Police estimated that the total attendance was 75,000 to 100,000, putting it on a par with the number who walked in the cortege of Bobby Sands, the IRA hunger striker who died in May 1981.

The event cost the government about £150,000, including security, press facilities and making the sodden grounds safe for the crowd. The cost of a hotel reception for celebrity guests, and transporting them to and from the event in coaches, was borne by Castlereagh borough council.

Factors which reduced the turnout included the damp December weather, the fact that the public was excluded from the graveside and that the service in Stormont was being televised live. Tens of thousands avoided the rain by watching the funeral at home or on big-screen TVs in football clubs and pubs across the province.

Manchester United, Best’s old team, played Portsmouth yesterday evening, which would have stopped many fans coming to Belfast. Sir Alex Ferguson, the team manager, flew in on a private plane alongside Denis Law, Best’s lifelong friend.

A hardy few sat up all night to gain a place at the front of the crowd. Among them were Robert Wallace and Frank Eccles from Greyabbey, near Belfast, who had stood on the street since 11pm on Friday, fortifying themselves with “a couple of wee winter warmers” of whiskey while their children ate sandwiches and made do with lemonade.

After a private blessing at the family home in Cregagh yesterday morning, the hearse made its way up the Royal Mile to Stormont and the crowds lining the route burst into applause and threw flowers, scarves and football shirts.

Before a minute’s silence at Stormont, a lone piper played a lament and the coffin was then carried into Parliament Buildings escorted by a guard of honour from Cregagh Boys’ Football Club, where Best had played in his younger days.

Representatives of the British and Irish governments, sporting organisations, political parties and police were among the mourners. They included the England football coach Sven-Goran Eriksson, Northern Ireland’s chief constable Sir Hugh Orde, his predecessor Sir Ronnie Flanagan and Peter Hain, the Northern Ireland secretary of state.

Martin McAleese, the Irish president’s husband, was in attendance along with John O’Donoghue, the Irish sports minister, and former snooker champions Dennis Taylor and Alex Higgins. Political figures included Peter Robinson, the Democratic Unionists’ deputy leader, and Martin McGuinness, the Sinn Fein MP. David Ervine, leader of the Progressive Unionist party, the political wing of the Ulster Volunteer Force, sat beside McGuinness among the VIP guests.

Among the wreaths placed at Parliament Buildings were tributes from Tony Blair, the Duke of York, who is president of the Football Association, and Manchester United football club.

At the funeral service in the Great Hall at Stormont, the first of many tributes was paid by Law, who won a European Cup medal alongside Best. He recalled the former footballer’s harrowing last hours in London’s Cromwell hospital saying, “lesser people would have passed away hours and hours ago. From originally telling us seven o’clock that night, he went on for the next 18 hours”.

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