Рет қаралды 32,918
(18 Jun 1997) English/Nat
Mourners from across the Irish border and the sectarian divide came together on Wednesday for the funerals of Constables David Johnston and John Graham of the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
Johnston, 30, and Graham, 34, were killed on Monday as they walked their beat in Lurgan, 35 miles (55 kilometres) southwest of Belfast.
They were the first members of the province's pro-British Protestant majority to be killed by the Irish Republican Army since the outlawed group resumed its campaign against British rule 16 months ago.
More than one-thousand mourners followed an honour guard of policemen carrying the Union Jack-draped coffin of David Johnston into St. Columba's Presbyterian Church in the Belfast suburb of Lisburn on Wednesday morning.
Johnston's widow, Angela, and her sons Louie and Joshua followed the procession.
Thursday would have been the 10th wedding anniversary for the couple, who had just moved into a new home.
The Reverend Malcolm Scott performed the funeral service and condemned the murders as an evil corrupt practice.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Murder is one of the greatest evils and any cause which embraces it shows its deep corruption."
SUPER CAPTION: Reverend Malcolm Scott
A farewell message from the two little boys to the "greatest Dad in the world" tragically summed up the horror of the I-R-A attack.
Fine Gael member Brandon McGahan - who was present at the Lisburn funeral and was to attend the later service at Tandragee - was adamant in his condemnation of the killings after the first service.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Well I've come to express my own personal revulsion, my total revulsion at this dastardly act. I've participated here in a very sad and moving ceremony and I just feel I had to express my total revulsion of the I-R-A and their associates and the people who support them in any way."
SUPER CAPTION: Brendon McGahan, Fine Gael Member
He also made it clear he believes the Northern Ireland problem to be an internal one which Washington should keep out of in the future - an outspoken view which is not in keeping with Irish Premier John Bruton's party line.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"I think the American administration should keep their hands out of it. This is an Irish problem and I think that misguided Americans sending money to this country to buy arms are only helping to take the lives of human beings in this country. I think that stronger measures have to be adopted against wild animals, human animals who commit this sort of terrible crime."
SUPER CAPTION: Brendon McGahan, Fine Gael Member
The funeral of John Graham, father of three girls aged between two and 10, took place at a Baptist church in Tandragee, 10 miles (15 kilometres) south of Lurgan.
The sight of the family - Graham's widow and their three daughters - overcome with grief mirrored that from the funeral earlier in the day.
Mourners who were unable to get into the church sat outside with heads bowed as the service was played through loudspeakers.
During the service Pastor Edward Betts berated the failure of politicians to bring peace to Northern Ireland and said the province had fallen into a groove of "denouncements and political rhetoric" which was leading nowhere.
Hundreds of R-U-C officers attended both funerals before the two murdered officers were given private family burials.
One man remains in police custody being questioned about the murders.
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