Prison Officer Adrian Ismay's funeral to take place in Belfast today

Family, friends and colleagues of 52-year-old Adrian Ismay will attend a service at a church off the city’s Shankill Road.

Mr Ismay, a married father-of-three, died eleven days after sustaining serious leg injuries in an under-vehicle bombing.

As the funeral takes place in north Belfast, in the city centre a public vigil for the officer will be held outside City Hall.

British and Irish government ministers will attend the funeral service at Woodvale Methodist Church, as will Stormont First Minister Arlene Foster.

Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness will not be there. It is understood the family declined an offer from the Sinn Fein veteran to attend.

A dissident republican group calling itself the New IRA, which opposes the Northern Ireland peace process, claimed to have carried out the attack on the long-serving officer.

Police fear the bombing was part of a planned upsurge in dissident activity ahead of the symbolic republican centenary of the Easter Rising against British Rule in Dublin.

Mr Ismay had been released from hospital in the wake of the blast in east Belfast on March 4 and had reportedly been making good progress.

But he died unexpectedly last Tuesday when a blood clot triggered a heart attack.

The results of a post mortem led detectives to trigger a murder investigation.

In the wake of Mr Ismay’s death, a number of dissident republicans held in Maghaberry high security prison in Co Antrim reportedly celebrated by lighting cigars.

A 45-year-old man from west Belfast has been remanded in custody charged with the murder.

Mr Ismay worked at Hydebank Wood Young Offenders Centre in south Belfast where he trained new recruits to the Northern Ireland Prison Service (NIPS).

All visits to Maghaberry and Hydebank Wood have been cancelled today to facilitate staff attending their murdered colleague’s funeral.