He was shot dead because his Celtic shirt told his killers he was a Catholic and at his funeral yesterday there was a huge floral tribute in the shape of a Celtic shirt.
About 2,000 mourners gathered in north Belfast outside the home of Gerard Lawlor (19) who was murdered by the UFF on Monday. As his brothers carried his coffin out of the family's house on the Whitewell Road, many family members burst into tears.
Gerard's fiancée, Siobhán Ramsbottom, and other relatives walked behind the cortege carrying single white roses. Lilies lay on top of the coffin as it passed a "For Sale" sign in the family garden. Gerard, Siobhán, and their 18-month old son, Josh, had been due to move away from the area.
Gerard was shot dead as he walked home from the pub, just several hundred yards from his home. The cortege paused at the stop where he was killed. Dozens of bunches of flowers were pinned to the railings and candles burned below.
One bouquet read: "They did not take your life, they gave you one. We will miss you oh so much for you will live forever. Good night son and God bless. Mum and Dad."
Hundreds of nationalist residents lined the streets as the coffin passed silently by. Some floral tributes were in the shape of St Enda's GAA shirt - Gerard is the fifth member of the club to be killed during the Troubles. Another wreath read "A chara - our friend".
Det Supt Roy Suitter, who is leading the murder investigation, yesterday said police had so far received no help from the loyalist community and he appealed for information.
The Lord Mayor of Belfast, Mr Alex Maskey, local Sinn Féin Assembly member Mr Gerry Kelly and SDLP councillors Mr Martin Morgan and Mr Pat Convery were among the mourners. Mr Michael Brett, whose teenage son Gavin, a Protestant, was killed last year by loyalists who mistook him for a Catholic, also attended.
The cortege made its way to St Gerard's church on the Antrim Road where the Bishop of Down and Connor, Dr Patrick Walsh, told mourners of the "manifest raw sectarian hatred" in north Belfast which had left "a totally innocent young man" dead.
Gerard had been killed simply because of his religion, he said. "For some, being a Catholic is a crime deemed to merit execution." He accused loyalists of terrorising the community.
"It was hatred that murdered Gerard," he said. "There is a deadly progression from the first sowing of the seeds of hatred in a young mind, to young lips spewing hate-filled words and threatening slogans, to hands painting frightening graffiti and so to hurling people bombs and petrol bombs and being armed as a member of a paramilitary gang."
He called for "fearless leadership" from political and church leaders.