In Ireland

The Victims and Survivors Trust

COMMUNITY IN MOURNING... hundreds of people joined the cortege of murder victim Terry Enright, shot by loyalists last Saturday night, as it made its way along the Upper Springfield Road in west Belfast yesterday towards the Holy Trinity Church in Turf Lodge

LAST GOODBYE... Terry Enright's widow Deirdre looks on as her husband is laid to rest yesterday

FAMILY SUPPORT... Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams, whose niece is the widow of murder victim Terry Enright, shoulders Mr Enright's coffin yesterday

Pictures: Hugh Russell

Irish News Thursday January 15th 1998

Outpouring of sorrow at murder victim's funeral

By Brendan Anderson

Goodbye, Belfast hero, read the message on a child's poster as he watched the half-mile long funeral cortege of loyalist murder victim Terry Enright pass along west Belfast's Upper Springfield Road yesterday.

The message said it all. The respected young family-man, GAA footballer and community worker was a true hero to the many under-privileged young people to whom he gave a sense of worth and dignity.

So many people turned out to say goodbye that stewards from his Gort-na-Mona GAA club had to clear a way for his funeral as it passed along the Whiterock Road, along Upper Springfield to the Holy Trinity Church in Turf Lodge.

Dozens of representatives from community associations carried wreaths as they walked behind a piper playing The Dawning of the Day and other slow airs.

Members of Gort-na-Mona minor camogie team carried flower arrangements which spelled out the tribute "A true Gael". In an unprecedented show of affection and grief, young people lining the route held up posters saying "You've reached the summit, Terry" and "Thanks for everything, Terry."

The cortege, numbering several thousand mourners when it left the murder victim's home, was swollen by people joining in along the way.

As the procession passed slowly down Monagh Road towards the church, the sun came out, a fine misty rain fell and a strongly-coloured rainbow rose from the nearby Black Mountain to frame the cortege in magnificent colours before falling away towards Belfast Lough.

The poignancy of the scene moved one mourner to remark: "Terry was born in the first year of the troubles. Perhaps, God willing, his death will be the last of the troubles."

Holy Trinity Church was packed to overflowing long before Terry Enright's funeral procession arrived and mourners packed the nearby roads and streets to listen to the Requiem Mass on a public address system.

Men and women broke down in tears as members of Mr Enright's family read the lessons. During the Prayer of the Faithful, one young girl said: "Terry, all the camogs appreciate the time and energy you put into helping us. We miss you. You were a big man with a big heart and if personality was money, you would have died a millionaire. There will always be a place for you in our hearts. Love, Gort-na-Mona camogs."

Irish News Thursday January 15th 1998

Murdered man of peace is buried

Terry Enright gave young people "a sense of their worth and their dignity," Bishop Patrick Walsh said yesterday. Brendan Anderson reports on the funeral of a man murdered in a sectarian attack who has become a symbol of reconciliation

MORE than 10,000 people, caught up in the wave of revulsion at the loyalist paramilitary murder of Terry Enright, followed his funeral cortege through his native west Belfast yesterday.

The funeral of the 28-year-old community worker, who was gunned down in the early hours of Sunday, was the biggest seen in Belfast since the hunger strikes in the 1980s.

Holy Trinity Church in Turf Lodge was packed to overflowing and a public address system was used to relay the words of Down and Connor Bishop Dr Patrick Walsh to thousands of mourners lining the nearby streets.

Bishop Walsh said he had shared the heartbreak of three families in recent weeks. Gerry Devlin, Eddie Treanor and Terry Enright, he said, were murdered because they were Catholics in vulnerable places.

Mr Enright, a father of two young daughters, was shot as he worked at his part-time job as a security man at the Space night-club in Talbot Street near Belfast city centre. The LVF admitted responsibility for the murder but security forces are in no doubt that the UFF played a major part in the killing.

Mr Enright's young widow Deirdre and her mother Margaret McCorry helped carry the coffin into the church after the mile-long journey.

Bishop Walsh asked: "Is being a Catholic a sufficient reason in some perverted minds for being murdered?"

Bishop Walsh said the murder evoked a "very evident and a very moving shared grief", especially from those who recognised and praised Mr Enright for his work at Gort-na-Mona club, his wider sporting interests and "above all, his cross-community work".

Holy Trinity parish priest Fr Matt Wallace said the solidarity shown by well-wishers and mourners from across "the so-called divide in our society" was evidence that "evil would never win the day".

"The work to which Terry was so deeply committed, of building relationships and healing wounds in our tragically divided community will continue," he said.

Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams, an uncle by marriage of the murdered man, said the volume of tributes from all denominations and the sense of loss shown by young west Belfast people were all proof that Terry Enright was "an extraordinary human being".

"The young people in particular have demonstrated their grief in a touching and disciplined way and I commend them for that.

"It is only by standing up for the rights of all citizens to equality and against the reactionaries and by bringing about a real peace with justice, can this conflict be brought to an end. Those political leaders who refuse to engage in honest dialogue cannot escape their responsibilities for this situation," the west Belfast MP said.

Senior SDLP talks negotiator and former west Belfast MP Joe Hendron said Mr Enright would be remembered with "terrific esteem and dignity" as a symbol of "what the future could be for this part of Ireland".

Dr Hendron said he was calling for an immediate meeting with security chiefs to demand an explanation for "many unanswered questions" about the murder of Catholics.

"We would all like to know why the so-called security forces have now become the actual insecurity forces. There are many observation towers set up around our city by the RUC and British army to apparently protect our community from this kind of obscenity. What in reality are the so-called security forces doing to protect Catholics," he said.

Secretary of State Mo Mowlam, speaking during Northern Ireland question time in the Commons, said: "The deaths and murders that we have seen should be condemned as appalling acts by everybody and this point I am sure the house would offer its condolences to Mr Enright's family while he is being buried at this very point in time."

Thousands mourn community worker gunned down by loyalists

DIGNITY... Deirdre Enright and her mother carried Terry Enright's coffin at yesterday's funeral which was one of the largest seen since those of the hunger strikers

Picture: Hugh Russell

Irish News Thursday January 15th 1998

An inspiration for peace seekers

A SIMPLE and dignified display of grief demonstrated the affection many felt for Terry Enright.

The eloquent testimony of countless people, from across the sectarian divide, must have brought enormous comfort to his family. For those of us who did not know him, the words of his friends brought home the loss we all have suffered as a result of his death.

The words of Bishop Patrick Walsh, when he spoke of a turning point in Northern Ireland's tragic history, carried an added poignancy.

The man at whose funeral he was preaching was the type of individual we need if that turning point is to be properly negotiated.

Everyone shares Dr Walsh's hope that 1998 will send an end to the "darkness of bitterness, suspicion, hatred and terror" which cost Mr Enright his life.

And we share too Fr Matt Wallace's conviction that "evil will never win the day".

In his short life, Mr Enright touched many young lives. In the weeks, months and years ahead, those young people will touch others.

His work will live on in them, and through them perhaps touch us all.