Security Surrounds 2 Separate Funerals

Security was tight across Northern Ireland as Roman Catholics and Protestants held separate funerals for two men killed in sectarian violence that has threatened the peace process. Thousands of pro-British Protestants marched through the town of Portadown for the funeral of the guerrilla Loyalist Volunteer Force chief, Billy Wright, known as “King Rat,” who was fatally shot inside the top-security Maze jail. Three republican inmates have been charged in his death. Hundreds of police and soldiers were on standby, and the town was at a standstill after shopkeepers received notes telling them to close as a mark of respect for the dead man. Community leaders said they saw this as an implied threat. Two hours before Wright’s funeral, the Catholic community in Coalisland attended services for Seamus Dillon, a former Irish Republican Army guerrilla who was shot by the LVF in revenge for Wright’s slaying. About 1,000 mourners followed Dillon’s coffin to the local Catholic church.