Evil of sectarianism was foreign to victim of gunmen, says priest

Brian Service, the Catholic man shot dead in a sectarian attack in north Belfast on Saturday morning, was a great U2 enthusiast, the priest at his funeral yesterday told mourners. Their music offered some meaning to life where the North's sectarianism offered nothing, he believed.

A 35-year-old construction worker, he had lived in London for a time before returning to his Ardoyne home. London allowed him to embrace and enjoy other cultures, added Father Kenneth Brady, who officiated at his funeral Mass in Holy Cross Church, Ardoyne.

Brian Service was a man who wouldn't hurt a fly, said Father Brady. In fact the evil of sectarianism which was responsible for his death was foreign to him.

"Brian was single, a searcher all his life. He looked for more. He treasured all the CDs of U2," said the priest.

Father Brady felt it particularly apposite to quote from their song One, which they played in Belfast in the pro-referendum concert attended by Mr John Hume and Mr David Trimble:

One love, one life, one blood, you got to do what you should,

One life with each other, sisters, brothers,

One life but we are not the same,

You got to carry each other, carry each other.

"Sometimes with his mother he sat in the back garden looking at the flowers, the sky beyond, and the mountains slightly further, wondering and taking in the beauty of it all. He wondered at our sectarianism, our bigotry," Father Brady recalled.

His loyalist killers, who called themselves the Red Hand Defenders, obviously operated from a different code. That was the message.

"What did the murderers hope to achieve through their evilness? On Saturday, as they looked at their own family, did they see the horror they inflicted on the Service family. This was not just another victim. This was their son, their brother," said Father Brady.

Mr Service's family appealed for no retaliation for his murder. They wanted to work from a "spirit of goodness". They wanted "to put behind us for ever the evil of hatred", Bishop Anthony Farquhar told the thronged church.

"This is the real evil in our society; this is the real evil that must be decommissioned now. For such evil is inherently evil and no future process can ever make that evil any less evil than it was at the moment when Brian's murder was planned and perpetrated," added the bishop. He prayed that "all barbarism be tamed".

Father Brady also led the mourners in prayers for peace and political progress.

"The Service family want no one to use Brian's death as an excuse to kill, rather they want our politicians to work more determinedly for peace and to work together," he said.

"They must not fail - we must not fail. The price of failure is too great," added Father Brady.

Yesterday the officer leading the murder investigation, Det Supt John Brannigan, said 20 minutes before Mr Service was shot dead at Alliance Avenue his killers had targeted another man close to the murder scene.

The Catholic man walking along Alliance Avenue noticed two men acting suspiciously behind him. He was concerned for his safety, but when a car came along the men made off in another direction and the man was able to get home safely, said Det Supt Brannigan.

The two men were described as wearing caps and sports gear. One was about 6 ft, the other shorter. "It would appear that the same two individuals came back and murdered Brian Service," he added.

Mr Gerry Kelly, the Sinn Fein Assembly member for North Belfast, said that Mr Service was murdered at a time when local people thought the loyalist death squads had left their streets for good. All nationalists must remain vigilant in the days ahead, said Mr Kelly, speaking from Philadelphia.