The funeral in Belfast yesterday of murdered former UDA leader Jim Gray was as abject as his life was flamboyant and brutal.
The most wretched and pitiable of the funerals of the Troubles were those of alleged informers, whether republican or loyalist, and that was the status the UDA accorded Gray yesterday.
Thousands would have attended his funeral had he been shot in different circumstances and not fallen foul of his former friends. He was murdered, it is believed, because his killers feared he might "tout" or inform on his senior ex-associates in the UDA. Gray, a drug-dealer, racketeer and organiser of sectarian and loyalist internecine killings, was for years the UDA's powerful east Belfast "brigadier". But yesterday the UDA leadership instructed members to stay away from his funeral service.
Only 14 mourners walked past the hearse carrying Gray's coffin from his father's home on the Clarawood estate in east Belfast.
Led by Gray's father, Jim senior, they walked for a brief distance before driving to Roselawn Cemetery.
Seven PSNI Land Rovers also followed the cortege. There, some additional mourners gathered at the graveside to see Gray buried alongside his son, Jonathan, who died of a drug overdose while holidaying with his father in Thailand three years ago. Camera crews were instructed not to film.
Gray was deposed as UDA leader in March. He was released recently on bail on money-laundering charges only to be gunned down outside his father's home yesterday week.
A number of people were arrested and later released without charge in connection with his murder.
Word on the loyalist streets is that some of his former accomplices in east Belfast were ordered to carry out the killing by the UDA leadership to ensure they didn't receive the same treatment. Gray was shot in the back five times as he unloaded weightlifting equipment from his car, indicating that he may have believed he was in the company of people he could trust.
A macabre form of loyalist gloating surrounded Gray's murder. A bonfire was lit in east Belfast at the weekend "celebrating" his killing. Gray was nicknamed "Doris Day" because of his ostentatious dress style and his fondness for gold jewellery and pastel-coloured clothes.
Graffiti also appeared declaring, "Jim Gray - RIP". But that too was cruel: it didn't wish him a peaceful passing. "Rest in pink," the graffiti added.
