The killers of a Catholic man in a loyalist area of Belfast were driven by sectarian bitterness and hatred, a bishop said at his funeral.
Hundreds of mourners gathered at St Michael's Church in west Belfast on Saturday to pay their respects to Mr Ben Hughes, a father of three. The Bishop of Down and Connor, Dr Patrick Walsh, said Mr Hughes (55) had been a devoted husband and father who was killed simply because he was a Catholic.
"Why did Ben Hughes's murderer not recognise Ben as his fellow human being?" Dr Walsh asked. "What clouded his eyes, what twisted his mind, what hardened his heart? It can only have been the anti-Catholic hatred and bitterness which he absorbed from whatever quarter. "And those who feed impressionable minds with such invective stand equally guilty of Ben's murder and so many other murders. It is one of the gravest indictments of these days and of past years and decades that Catholics have been murdered for no other reason than that they were Catholics."
Mr Hughes was shot dead on Wednesday as he sat in his car after leaving a garage where he had worked for 30 years in the loyalist Sandy Row area of south Belfast. Mourners were led by his wife Jean, daughter Claire and sons Brian and Barry. Mrs Hughes was comforted several times during the service by friends and relatives.
Dr Walsh said he had visited Mr Chris McMahon, a Catholic shot by loyalists in north Belfast on Thursday, in intensive care in the Royal Victoria Hospital. "There I saw doctors and nurses using all their professional skill to save the lives of Chris and the other patients," he said.
"In that unit, each and every life is recognised as absolutely sacred and accorded all dignity and the family of the patient given every comfort and love. What a contrast with what is happening on our streets.
"Ben Hughes was gunned down with a total and diabolical disregard for the sacredness and dignity of his life and the joy and the peace of his family were callously destroyed. In the darkness of these days, we must always convince ourselves that good will triumph over evil, good must triumph over evil."
In his homily, the parish priest, Father Sean McCartney, said the men of violence must not be allowed to win.
Mr Hughes was later buried at Milltown Cemetery on the Falls Road. Meanwhile, the UFF has denied murdering Mr Liam Conway, who was shot dead by a lone loyalist gunman in north Belfast on Friday night.