THE funeral has taken place of Francis Shannon, the north Belfast man shot dead on Sunday evening in the continuing INLA dispute which has claimed five lives.
Mr Shannon (23), was buried after requiem Mass in Holy Cross Church on the Crumlin Road in north Belfast yesterday morning. There were no paramilitary trappings for the funeral, either at his home in Ardoyne or on the way to the church.
The INLA grouping which murdered Mr Shannon, meanwhile, has insisted there is no feud within the organisation. Newspapers and other media who continued to carry such reports were being "mischievous and dishonest".
"The INLA will not tolerate a continuance of this practice," the group threatened in a statement yesterday.
While Mr Shannon was one of the colour party flanking the coffin of the previous victim of the feud, he had only the most tenuous links with the INLA.
The last victim, Dessie McCleery - whose funeral Mr Shannon attended dressed in paramilitary garb - was associated with the "GHQ" INLA faction, which so far has suffered the most casualties in the dispute.
Since this faction murdered INLA leader Gino Gallagher in January, the group loyal to Gallagher has countered by killing four people, including nine year old Barbara McAlorum. A number of other people have been wounded in related gun attacks. The "GHQ" faction is led by a former INLA chief of staff who was ousted by Gallagher. This former leader in turn set up his rival INLA faction, which triggered the current bout of blood letting.
The INLA group loyal to Gallagher said those linked to the ousted leader could avoid the threat of death by contacting a member of the clergy to dissociate themselves from the GHQ faction. This information in turn should be communicated to the INLA, the group added.