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Catholics, Protestants join in mourning youth worker

Funeral procession
Among the faces at the funeral were a suprising number of Protestants  

5,000 attend funeral for latest victim of sectarian violence

January 14, 1998
Web posted at: 8:29 p.m. EST (0129 GMT)

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (CNN) -- About 5,000 mourners from both Northern Ireland's Catholic and Protestant communities turned out Wednesday for the funeral of a Catholic youth worker slain Sunday in a politically motivated murder.

Terry Enwright, 28, married to the niece of Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, was shot outside a Belfast nightclub by members of a renegade Protestant paramilitary group, the Loyalist Volunteer Force, which is opposed to Northern Ireland's ongoing peace talks.

The killing of Enwright -- who worked as a counselor and mentor for children from the Catholic and Protestant communities -- has prompted expressions of outrage from both sides.

Tearful children in school uniforms lined the streets in Catholic west Belfast as Enwright's coffin was carried past. It was covered not with the Irish tri-color -- which is often done for Catholic victims of sectarian violence -- but with the colors of his football club.

Thousands turn out to mourn the death of Terry Enwright.
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"He set an example for young people that you didn't have to stay among your own, that you could work with people from the other side. And he was so good at it," said Jack McKee, who runs an evangelical youth mission on Belfast's Protestant side.

"The volume of tributes from all denominations, and the very special sense of loss from local young people in west Belfast, are proof that Terry Enwright was an extraordinary human being," said Adams, who was among the mourners.

Enwright was the 3,233rd person to die in three decades of violence between pro-British and Irish nationalist forces in Northern Ireland.

At his funeral, Catholic Bishop Patrick Walsh said he hoped 1998 "will see the agony over, and the darkness of bitterness, suspicion, hatred and terror scattered in the warm light of tolerance, respect, love and peace."

Adams mourns
Gerry Adams, among thousands of others mourning at Enwright's funeral  

At the time of his death, Enwright was working at a club owned by a relative of David Ervine, a leading pro-British Protestant politician whose Progressive Unionist Party is participating in the peace process.

Ervine said he believes Enwright's murder by the LVF was designed to send a message to Protestant groups who have agreed to sit down with Catholic opponents of British rule in Northern Ireland, including Sinn Fein, the political arm of the Irish Republican Army.

Those negotiations resumed Monday. The British and Irish governments have proposed a new framework that would restore an elected legislature for Northern Ireland and set up another body with representatives from Ireland and Northern Ireland that would oversee some governmental functions.

The proposal also includes a "Council of the Isles," which would include representatives from Ireland, Northern Ireland, Britain, Scotland and Wales. The council's role and actual powers remain vague.

Correspondent Richard Blystone and Reuters contributed to this report.

 
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