The partner of the 25-year-old Catholic man shot dead in their Coleraine home last Saturday by loyalist paramilitaries placed a symbolic heart in her murdered partner's coffin before his funeral in the Co Derry town yesterday.
Mr John Henry McCormick died in a hail of bullets when two gunmen, both dressed in boiler suits, burst into his Loughinhill Park home in Coleraine's loyalist Ballysally Estate. His partner, Ms Lynn McConnell, a Protestant, who is expecting their third child in September, was at home at the time with their sons, Kieran and Dillon, and two other young children.
Father Eugene Boland said yesterday that since the murder, four other Catholic families had left the estate. Speaking after celebrating Mass for Mr McCormick, Father Boland spoke of the symbolic gift Ms McConnell had placed the murder victim's coffin.
"There was a very touching symbolism in that Lynn, his partner, had brought a toy heart broken in two pieces. She put one half in the coffin and has kept the other half for herself for the day that she is sure she will meet John again and that the two hearts will be reunited," said Father Boland.
The hundreds of people at the Mass in St John's Church in Coleraine listened as Father Boland condemned the murder.
"On Saturday night gunmen invaded the privacy of this home and in front of four young children just callously and brutally shot this man. It is just unbelievable," he said.
"Not only are people shocked and saddened, but the murder has also frightened many people."