THE self described "old UVF man", Mr Gusty Spence (64), gave a brief oration at the funeral of Mr Jim Lynch (72), a former officer commanding (OC) of the IRA, at Cootehill, Co Cavan, yesterday.
Mr Lynch died following a brief illness. He was OC of the IRA in the Cavan area during the Border campaign in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
At his funeral yesterday, Mr Spence said he was not there to deify Mr Lynch, whom he described as "a simple man but a wealthy one in terms of his friends and his love for his country".
Although Mr Lynch was from a different tradition, he had "welcomed his friendship," and he recalled the conversations they had about peace in Ireland.
Speaking from his home in Belfast last night, Mr Spence said he had become acquainted with Mr Lynch three or four years ago.
Both of them shared "a deep sense of history", and he spoke of Mr Lynch's "lasting ambition" to see peace in Ireland. Mr Lynch had many unionist friends, "some even politicians".
Mr Lynch's widow, Norma, recollected last night that the late Catholic primate of Ireland, Cardinal O Fiaich, had said that "if there was a hope for peace in Ireland it would come through Gusty".
So when her husband had first made contact with Mr Spence "it was like talking to someone we had always known".
Mr Spence said last night he was an eternal optimist" where the present situation in the North was concerned.
"While the talks may be slow, they are the only glint on the horizon, he said. "We have to get in there, and stay in there," he continued, remembering that "it took several hundred years to bring about this situation, so we must have a little bit of patience. Progress is being made, inch by inch. Slowly."
