Brady funeral - Discredited gestures

THOUGH John Brady lived his life at odds with this democracy — he was convicted of murder — that does not mean that we cannot recognise his death was a tragedy.

Brady hanged himself in a police cell last Saturday after being arrested while on weekend parole. It was said he could not face the prospect of returning to jail.

His funeral yesterday reminded us all of a past we so desperately want to move on from. Shots were fired as if a hero was being honoured. Four men wearing paramilitary uniforms appeared beside Brady’s coffin and fired a volley of shots in the air.

These are the gestures of a failed and discredited culture and do not honour anyone’s life or death.