Thousands of people of different ages and religious backgrounds turned out in west Belfast yesterday to mourn Terry Enright, the Catholic youth worker murdered by loyalist gunmen last Saturday night.
Crowds standing four and five deep lined the funeral route, with Protestant community workers among them. Mr Enright's young widow led the mourners, comforted by her uncle, the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, who also carried the coffin briefly.
A wreath spelling the word "Daddy" was a reference to Mr Enright's two young daughters, Aoife and Ciara, aged five and one.
Violent death has been all too common in the area around the Upper Whiterock Road, where Mr Enright grew up, but the mood on the streets yesterday was of a community that had been robbed of somebody it could not easily replace.
"He was the only person I ever really looked up to," was how one teenager explained it. Since Mr Enright's murder, tributes have been paid to him by political and community leaders on both sides of the divide in Northern Ireland.
The 28-year-old father of two worked with disadvantaged young people from Catholic and Protestant backgrounds. He was killed because he was a Catholic, the Bishop of Down and Connor, Dr Patrick Walsh, told mourners.
The number of people who lined the funeral route or who followed the cortege - up to 10,000 - was swelled by many young people who had known Terry Enright through his youth work.
Teenage girls, teetering on platform shoes, linked arms, shivering in the biting January air. Youths, wearing baseball caps and trainers, were proud to say: "Aye, we knew Terry."
Mr Enright was an outdoor pursuits instructor and worked with young people others didn't want to deal with, one community worker explained.
Along the funeral cortege some young people held posters with messages, such as "You reached the summit, Terry".
The cortege left from the Enright home at the base of the Black Mountain. Under a cold January sun, it was led by a lone piper and a guard of honour from Gort na Mona GAA club, where Mr Enright played hurling and football and coached camogie teams. "A True Gael" was the message on a wreath carried by eight young camogie players.
During Mass at Holy Trinity Church, young people reading prayers of the faithful wept as they paid their tributes.
Dr Walsh, reminding mourners of the years of Terry Enright's life, said the period from 1969-1998 was one of "agony piled on agony". He urged people "to work tirelessly and sincerely" so that Mr Enright's children and other children could live in a different atmosphere.