Elim church remembers 17-year-old Belfast Christian shot dead randomly 30 years ago by socialist republican faction

A Belfast church has held a service of remembrance for a 17-year-old murder victim, killed in an apparently random attack by an offshoot of the INLA.
By Adam Kula
Published 18th Feb 2022, 18:29 BST
One of the logos of the INLAOne of the logos of the INLA
One of the logos of the INLA

Andrew Johnston, a member of the pentecostal Elim church movement, had been working in a video rental shop in north Belfast when a gunman walked through the door and shot him repeatedly at 8pm on February 17, 1992.

He had previously worked as a mechanic and was not involved with any kind of criminal activity; it is thought the shooting was a sectarian reprisal by the IPLO for loyalist murders of Catholics in the city.

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Pastor Jack McKee MBE of New Life City Church said a roughly 30-minute service took place at 7.30pm on Thursday at Ballysillan Elim where the teenager had worshipped.

SCENE OF SHOOTING OF ANDREW JOHNSTON (right) AT BALLYSILLAN VIDEO LIBRARYSCENE OF SHOOTING OF ANDREW JOHNSTON (right) AT BALLYSILLAN VIDEO LIBRARY
SCENE OF SHOOTING OF ANDREW JOHNSTON (right) AT BALLYSILLAN VIDEO LIBRARY

A wreath was also laid at the video shop where he had worked.

“Everyone who lived through ‘The Troubles’ in Northern Ireland has their stories, some worse than others,” said the pastor.

“Many of us know we were fortunate to make it through those dark years, but we remember those who didn’t.”

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The IPLO is believed to have killed 24 people after it emerged in the mid-1980s.

It came about from a bitter dispute within the INLA, which in turn had arisen in the mid-1970s out of a split within the Official IRA.

With an emphasis on socialism, the IPLO had fallen to pieces by about 1992 amid feuding between different factions and intimidation from the mainstream IRA.

More from this reporter:

Click here: Mum speaks out over LVF murder of her only son 20 years after campaign declared over

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Click here: DUP brother of UDA sectarian murder victim Gavin Brett breaks 20 year silence

Click here: Police family speaks out for first time 35 years after IRA murdered their brother and three other young officers

Click here: IRA murder 40 years on: ‘We will have to wait until the next life before we see justice’

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