SAD NEWS FROM IRELAND

No Heaven For Catholics Says DUP Man

05/12/06 12:12 EST

A Democratic Unionist Party councillor in Northern Ireland has sparked anger after he claimed that a
15 year old youth murdered in a sectarian attack in Ballymena last weekend "will not get into heaven" because he was a Catholic.

As the family of Michael McIlveen prepare for his burial, DUP politician Roy Gillespie said he would not attend Monday’s funeral because it is being held in a Catholic church. Mr Gillespie is a close colleague of DUP leader Ian Paisley. He said he prayed that Catholics would be saved. He said hat, if Catholics did not repent before they died, they “will not get into heaven". "As a Catholic, he [Michael McIlveen] won’t get into heaven unless he has been saved. If he did not repent before he died and asked the Lord into his heart, he will not get into heaven. Catholics are not accepted into heaven."
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Responding to Mr Gillespie’s comments, North Antrim Sinn Fein assembly member Philip McGuigan said: "Mr Gillespie’s sentiments are disgraceful, especially as they come so soon after a 15-year-old was murdered as a result of sectarian bigotry. This is the kind of attitude that causes others to carry out attacks fuelled by religious hatred. There is no excuse for these comments."
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Meanwhile, a Protestant church leader has met the McIlveen family, and urged other youths not to risk their lives through "pointless sectarian bravado". Dr Harry Uprichard, the Presbyterian Moderator in
Ireland,  offered sympathy and expressed revulsion at the killing during his visit to the grieving family’s home in Ballymena, Co Antrim.
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Police who believe Michael, 15, was beaten to death because of his religion have charged five teenagers with the murder. After meeting the McIlveens, Dr Uprichard appealed for an end to the festering sectarian tension in the town. He said: "I would say to all young people involved in such activity: `don’t allow yourself to be influenced by those who would persuade you that you are doing something macho by being caught up in this." "It doesn’t have to be like this. There is something better for you. You live in a town which has so much to offer. You have a life which is full of so much potential. You have energy and enthusiasm." "Use that life wisely. Don’t waste it in a way that brings no benefit to yourself and may even bring harm to others`."  Dr. Uprichard said he was stunned by the attack on  Michael last Sunday as he went with friend to buy a take-away pizza.

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The funeral procession was attacked by Loyalist.  Two cars were surrounded and stoned.