Tributes were paid to former leading loyalist paramilitary turned peacemaker Gusty Spence at his funeral in Belfast today.
Augustus “Gusty” Spence (78), was convicted for a sectarian murder in 1966 and was a figurehead of the paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) which killed hundreds of people when the full violence of the Troubles began three years later.
But he was also credited with being a driving force in delivering the loyalist ceasefires of the mid-1990s that helped bring an end to the decades of conflict.
Mr Spence, who died in hospital at the weekend after a long illness, inspired loyalists to enter politics during the peace process and helped form the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP).
The party's former leader Dawn Purvis told his funeral in the loyalist heartland of Belfast’s Shankill Road that Mr Spence became involved in violence in the 1960s.
In her address to the church congregation, Ms Purvis recalled how Mr Spence had been frank about his UVF role, but that he had often shocked loyalist contemporaries by his willingness to bring an end to conflict and build bridges between working class Protestants and Catholics.
She told mourners that he had made friends among republicans and socialists and among people from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
Ms Purvis encouraged young loyalists at the funeral to read the political doctrines encouraged by Mr Spence. “Gusty was a man of war, he was also a man of peace,” she said. “My experience of Gusty was as the whole man. A man once involved in conflict. A man who worked tirelessly for peace. A man committed to social and economic justice and equality and a man absolutely devoted and committed to his wife and family.”
There were no paramilitary trappings as mourners carried the coffin of the loyalist leader. His hearse bore a floral tribute that spelt out the word “Granda”, while relatives who spoke at the funeral recalled personal memories of a family man.
While the only echoes of Mr Spence’s paramilitary past were the UVF murals that dotted his funeral route, a guard of honour was formed by veterans of his old British Army regiment, the Royal Ulster Rifles. He had risen through its ranks to become a sergeant in the military police and the regiment’s flag was draped across his coffin.
Leading public figures were among the mourners, including former senior civil servant Maurice Hayes, former head of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission Monica McWilliams, and trade unionist Peter Bunting. The widow of former PUP leader David Ervine, Jeanette, also attended.
Mr Spence was brought up in the Shankill, but was forced out in later years by loyalists opposed to his defence of the peace process and his opposition to continued paramilitary activity.
As a lone piper led his funeral cortege through the area, the streets were lined by mourners. The crowds included a leader of the loyalist Ulster Defence Association Jackie McDonald.
While the Troubles broke out in 1969, the murders carried out by the UVF years earlier were seen as brutal sectarian attacks that shocked Northern Ireland.
In incidents carried out within days of each other in June 1966, Mr Spence’s gang killed two Catholic men, plus a Protestant pensioner who was murdered in a failed attempt to burn a neighbouring Catholic-owned bar.
Mr Spence was convicted for the murder of one of the victims, 18-year-old Peter Ward, who was shot dead after being identified as a Catholic while he drank in a mainly Protestant pub.
The loyalist leader always denied responsibility and his family are now challenging the conviction.
Mr Spence argued for a ceasefire with republicans from as early as the mid-1970s and played a key role in encouraging young loyalists he met in prison to think of the reasons for their involvement in violence.
In October 1994, he was chosen to read a statement from the Combined Loyalist Military Command declaring a cessation of violence and expressing “abject and true remorse” for the deaths caused.
PA