People who fomented the bitterness and hatred in Northern Ireland over the years by inflammatory words stood guilty of the murder of west Belfast community worker Terry Enright, the Bishop of Down and Connor, Dr Patrick Walsh, told thousands of mourners at his funeral yesterday.
The 28-year-old father of two, who has been highly praised for his work with young people from both sides of the divide in the North, was shot dead last Saturday night by LVF gunmen as he worked as a doorman at a city centre nightclub. Mourners at his funeral were told that he had "reached out in a very special way to the most marginalised in society, and given them hope".
Dr Walsh said it was not only those who pulled the trigger who stood guilty of Mr Enright's killing, but all those who plotted and planned it, and those who had fomented the bitterness and hatred "which ended with this and so many other murders".
The bishop said Mr Enright and other recent victims of loyalist violence were murdered because they were Catholics in vulnerable places. "Is being a Catholic a sufficient reason in some perverted minds for being murdered?" asked Dr Walsh.
Up to 10,000 people lined the streets or walked behind the funeral cortege as it made its way from Mr Enright's home on the Upper Whiterock Road to the Holy Trinity Church in Turf Lodge. Mourners were led by Mr Enright's wife, Deirdre, his parents, Mary and Terry, who are also active community workers, and his three brothers.
A lone piper led the cortege, and members of Gort na Mona GAA club, where Mr Enright was a player and coach, provided a guard of honour. Eight girls, all members of a junior camogie team coached by Mr Enright, walked in front of the hearse with a huge floral tribute reading "A True Gael". His coffin was draped in the club's colours.
Numbers at the funeral were swelled by a very high turnout of young people who knew Mr Enright through his work on a number of youth programmes and as an outdoor pursuits instructor.
Mr Enright's wife is a niece of the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, who walked behind the funeral cortege with the chief mourners. Other leading members of Sinn Fein, including Mr Martin McGuinness, also attended, as did prominent members of the Workers' Party. The Lord Mayor of Belfast, Mr Alban Maginness, of the SDLP, was also present.
Father Matt Wallace, who celebrated the funeral Mass, said Mr Enright had spent his vast energies and employed his many skills in enhancing and enriching the lives of other people, especially the young, across the community. He said that Mr Enright was murdered because he was a Catholic and a nationalist.