It is the stark simplicity of the UDA mindset and the ease with which it murdered an innocent man which has struck fear into so many, writes Dan Keenan, Northern News Editor
To use a typical Northern phrase, yesterday's funeral of murder victim Danny McColgan had "some turnout".
It wasn't just the huge crowd, it was the composition of it. For among the thousands of mourners from all over supposedly-divided north Belfast were government ministers, leading clergy from the main denominations, public-sector workers from both sides of the divide, union representatives and fellow Royal Mail employees from Britain as well as the North.
Among those who came forward to offer their sympathies to the bereaved were the family of Gavin Brett, who was shot dead last year outside a GAA club "by mistake" by assassins who took him for a Catholic.
If ever there was a powerful show of unity in the face of adversity, this was it. At times of high emotion like this, when fear mingles with shock, revulsion and not a little confusion, people look for explanation to put some sort of sense on the awful events of last Saturday morning, when the UDA opened fire on Danny McColgan.
Despite much of the valid talk of Protestant alienation, of the eroded sense of Britishness, of the swaggering advances of newly-confident nationalism and the alleged "hollowing-out" of Protestants' identity in the North, there is often the need to acknowledge the powerful existence of brutal sectarian hatred.
It is this, and little else, which cost Danny McColgan his life. For those who lay in wait at 4.45 a.m. to kill him are prompted by little more than a Shankill butcher-type logic of "plugging" the first available Catholic.
Their victim was simply a Catholic (probably by accident of birth alone) who was easily identifiable. He was vulnerable in that he worked in "hostile" territory and began work in the dark hours of a January morning.
It is the stark simplicity of the UDA mindset and the relative ease with which its members murdered an innocent man which has struck such fear and vulnerability into the hearts of so many.
For some of the mourners at the graveside in Carnmoney yesterday, this was their first funeral. Twenty-year-olds tend not to have deceased friends, let alone colleagues who have been quietly sacrificed for someone else's cause. Where last week their priorities were doing their job, getting paid and having a good time at the clubs - as 20-year-olds like Danny McColgan do - this week they are wondering who might be next.
The Secretary of State made clear on Monday that the Police Service meant business when more than 700 officers and troops were assembled in a high-visibility security operation to enable children to go to school and teachers to arrive safely to instruct them. The return of British army helicopters hovering over north Belfast acted as a very visible reminder of the returned unseen threat on the ground.
For other workers, the response to the ICTU call for a half-day protest stoppage and rally at Belfast City Hall speaks for itself. The major unions and the umbrella organisation for the voluntary sector have endorsed the move. Their decision underscores the foresight of the ICTU's Peter Bunting and shows that some of those in the political and business sectors, who have one eye on the balance sheet, are perhaps not so fully in touch with the opinion of a now fearful public as they might like to think.
For the moment, those who turned out to bury Danny McColgan, and who crave nothing more than normality, are displaying a simple humanity in the face of the UDA's simple hatred.