THE German girlfriend of an INLA feud victim, who was ordered to leave the country by a rival faction, attended his funeral yesterday.
Seven men dressed in paramilitary uniforms flanked the coffin of Mr Desmond McCleery, while police kept a discreet distance. The RUC said it had come to a loose agreement with the family and did not intervene when the coffin draped in a Tricolour and Starry Plough with a black beret and gloves left his mother's home in Lurgan, Co Armagh.
More than 70 mourners at the Requiem Mass in St Mary's Church, Derrytrasna, Co Armagh, heard Father Desmond Loughran say God was "begging for no retaliation". "Do not let the cries for peace and the pleas for a ceasefire go in vain with more of the same law breaking and shattering of people's lives and loves," he said.
However, an INLA source said after the funeral that Mr McCleery's murder would be "avenged".
Mr McCleery, who was accused by the rival faction of being an MI5 agent, was shot dead in front of his girlfriend, Ms Stefanie Shultz, in the Chicago Pizza Pie Factory in Belfast last Saturday afternoon.
She has been told to leave the country by the opposing group or face death. Mr McCleery's murder is the latest in a bloody INLA internal feud which has also claimed the life of a nine year old girl, Barbara McAlorum.
He is survived by his mother Isobel, a daughter aged 18 months, two brothers and two sisters.
He was on the run from the Garda on arms charges after he failed to turn up at his last bail hearing.
One brother, Mr Paddy McCleery (32), was released on compassionate leave from jail where he is on remand for arms charges. He said "The whole family is just devastated. Dessie was the linch pin of the whole family. My dad died when we were all young. He was our dad. You couldn't ask for a better brother. They labelled my brother a drug dealer and an Ml5 agent. They scandalised him when he was alive. Anyone who knows my brother knows it is an out and out lie."
He said the family was angry that the media were repeating these allegations. "To label my brother an informant when they have been the bane of his life is ludicrous," said Mr McCleery.
"Our Dessie was a revolutionary. More a revolutionary than any of those scum will ever be. These people are just the dregs of Belfast," he said.
In an interview after the funeral, a source close to the INLA accused the rival faction of hijacking the movement. "They have to disband," he said.
"You can't have an ideological split with people who have no ideology. The only thing that is holding those people together is fear and hate fear of getting killed themselves and hate for certain individuals."