Today marks the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough Stadium disaster. SEÁN MacCONNELLwas in Liverpool in April 1989 on the day of the Requiem Mass for the supporters who died

THE SUN had gone down behind the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King here last night when the knots of grieving people eventually broke up to go to their homes. Liverpool has seldom experienced a worse day and it seemed appropriate that they should come and pray; they did so in their thousands.

Three and a half thousand people packed into the cathedral along with civic and sporting leaders for a Requiem Mass celebrated by the Catholic Archbishop of Liverpool, Dr Worlock, who was joined by his Anglican counterpart, the Right Rev David Sheppard; the Bishop of Liverpool, and all the other Church leaders from the city.

Outside the cathedral a further 15,000 people had gathered. They pulled and pushed at the gates to get in as police and stewards talked them in to keeping back.

Eventually it was decided that another Mass, should be celebrated outside. In the failing sunlight they knelt and prayed for the dead and injured.

It was an emotional occasion, especially during the outdoor Mass when fans brought to the altar gifts of their scarves, souvenir programmes, bunches of flowers and other mementos from the tragedy at Hillsborough which has chilled Liverpool to the heart of its normally merry soul.

Inside the cathedral, Dr Worlock told the congregation not to grieve that their friends had gone to God. He told of how he visited the injured in the Sheffield hospitals and how the irrepressible strength of the Liverpudlians was coming to the fore. Doctors there had told him they had never ever seen injured people recover so quickly.

He told a congregation, many of whom wept openly, that the relatives and friends of the dead would never walk alone and it was their official duty to make sure this did not happen.

He read messages of sympathy from Queen Elizabeth, Pope John Paul II, Archbishop Runcie and had a special mention for the messages of sympathy from all the Church leaders in Northern Ireland. These, he said, were especially touching.

There was secular prayer too. It began early yesterday on the turf at Anfield when Liverpool Football Club opened its gates to the grieving public who flocked in their thousands to pay tribute.

The main gate, dedicated to the memory of Bill Shankly, was hung with scarves, rosettes and bedecked with bouquets of flowers from fans far and wide.

Fans then walked up the pitch to the famous Spion Kop terraced end of the ground to leave other mementos. By 4pm when the gates were closed for church services, the goal in front of the Kop was full of flowers from not only Liverpool but (also) from Everton supporters. There were wreaths too from Manchester United, Sheffield and from Dublin. There was also a wreath from the Belgian Heysel stadium.

Television crews and reporters moved from group to group of shocked fans and families who sat weeping on the terrace, comforting each other and crying uncontrollably.

One man told reporters how he had tried to rescue an 11-year-old boy who had told him his name was Lee. He had lost him in the crush and later he saw Lee dead. He carried in his hand a bunch of flowers which said: “I am sorry Lee.” On the pitch the Salvation Army had dozens of its members helping, comforting, handing out tea and in one corner the Salvation Army band quietly played hymns. At 2pm the bell on the giant Anglican church which in the past tolled only on the death of a monarch, rang out its tribute.

Inside the stadium, Liverpool Football Club held an emergency meeting and a decision was taken to put up £100,000 for the relatives and friends of the dead.

The club will also donate the takings from the Hillsborough game. The chairman, Mr John Smith, told reporters that all games had been suspended for the time being.

On Radio Merseyside the entire morning’s programming was taken up with people calling in to the station giving eye-witness accounts and their views on what had happened. Many had tragic tales to tell, including one young man who had lost his father, was reunited with him again and lost him for the second time, only to find him dead later. There were allegations that yet a second gate had been opened to the tragedy area and many callers claimed poor policing for the disaster.

A spokesman for Liverpool Metropolitan Police came on air to ask people to be patient with them. Theirs, he said, was a terrible job on the day, going around telling people that they had lost friends and relatives. The social services and other support groups moved in to Liverpool quickly yesterday and organised buses for relatives to travel to Sheffield to see injured people and to identify the bodies of their loved ones.

The team was being backed up by social workers trained in grief counselling and who helped many of the victims of the Zeebrugge ferry disaster.

But Liverpool is a sporting town and a resilient one. Already last night people were debating whether or not the semifinal should be replayed. There were conflicting views on this on the streets and in the bars; local MP David Alton has called for its suspension. Liverpool City Council, which meets later this week, will also address that problem and there will be a motion calling on “the football authorities to ensure that all First Division grounds are all-seating, with no terraced areas at all”.

The depth of Liverpool’s sporting legacy could be seen last night outside the cathedral when coaches carrying the Liverpool and Everton teams away from the Mass were cheered by the congregation who burst into applause.