Hundreds of mourners from both communities crowded into Carnmoney Parish Church at the outskirts of north Belfast, with hundreds more attending outside, as a Protestant teenager gunned down in a random sectarian attack was laid to rest yesterday.
Gavin Brett (18) died on Sunday night after loyalist gunmen, claiming to be from the Red Hand Defenders, opened fire from a car on a group of young people outside St Enda's GAA Club whom they assumed were Catholics. One of Mr Brett's Catholic friends, Michael Farrell, was shot in the foot.
Mr Farrell was released from hospital to attend the funeral. He followed the coffin, which was carried by Mr Brett's father, Michael.
A private service was held at the family home, which had earlier been visited by the RUC Chief Constable, Sir Ronnie Flanagan. The cortege then made its way to the church in which Gavin Brett was baptised 18 years ago, briefly coming to a halt at the spot on the Hightown Road where the young man lost his life, by now a sea of flowers, cards and football scarves.
Vehicles from the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service formed a guard of honour, with ambulance men paying their respects to their colleague, Mr Brett's father, who in his professional life had attended the Omagh bomb atrocity. Mr Brett's mother, Phyllis, his sister, Tara and brother, Philip clutched red roses as they entered the church.
In an emotional address, a Church of Ireland rector, the Rev Nigel Baylor, said those who killed Mr Brett represented "the evil wasteful path which is dead and useless to us all", very much in contrast to their young victim.
"These men who murdered Gavin were Protestants, loyalists, and they killed one of their own, thinking that he was a Roman Catholic. They did it for the cause of Protestant civil rights. All they succeeded in doing was to deny a Protestant his civil right and deny all Protestants their civil rights. They have done nothing but bring shame on the name of Protestantism."
Young people like Gavin Brett, who had friends on both sides of the community, represented "the only future, the only hope, the only purpose we have, the only truth - that we are called to love our neighbours as ourselves, regardless of their background", he added.
On Tuesday night, Mr Baylor and a local Catholic priest, Father Dan Whyte, conducted a joint candle-lit vigil at the scene of the shooting.
The Primate of the Church of Ireland, Archbishop Robin Eames, expressed his deepest sympathy to the Brett family. "Even if we can't step into their shoes, we know what they are going through", he told BBC Radio Ulster. Having just returned from a trip to the Middle East, Dr Eames said the situation there was "frighteningly similar". He added: "The cost of a breakdown in trying to have political dialogue is reflected in Northern Ireland, the sheer fear that we encounter is similar. It is the same problem when reason and dialogue don't seem to get us anywhere - violence takes over."
Not only the churches but everybody with responsibility in the community needed to work to break the cycle of violence.
"I say to those who want to take the path of violence: You will have no solution for us - you only bring more Gavin Brett situations on all of us. From the point of view of reconciliation, we have to turn a word of weakness into a word of strength. Despite the obstacles, despite the difficulties, we have to go on and on speaking about our faith that there is a better way forward than the gun and the bomb. We have got to push our communities into that direction", he concluded.