Andy Tyrie: Funeral of Troubles-era UDA leader turned advocate for peace held near Belfast - service hears importance of forgiving past sins
Friends and family have gathered to mourn Andy Tyrie, the former loyalist paramilitary leader who became a staunch advocate for the peace process.
His funeral in Dundonald Presbyterian Church today (22nd) saw Rev William McCully speak of the importance of forgiving past sins, highlighting one of Mr Tyrie’s own regular sayings: “Always forgive and don’t be bitter.”
Leader of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) for 15 years, Andy Tyrie first got involved in paramilitarism in the late 1960s in the wake of his family being driven out of two heavily Catholic areas of Belfast.
Although the UDA always claimed its role was to defend unionist and loyalist communities from the IRA, it was involved in sectarian murders of Catholics and other criminality – including numerous killings within protestant communities.
Mr Tyrie became leader of the UDA in 1973, after the terror group’s previous chief Tommy Herron was shot dead. A main mover of the massive Ulster Workers Council general strike the following year, he subsequently became disenchanted with mainstream unionism and at one point advocated for an independent Northern Ireland.
Presiding over the UDA’s campaigns until the late 1980s, he stood down after an attempt on his life. With the arrival of the peace process in the 1990s, he became a staunch champion of the Belfast Agreement and spent much of the last three decades working for reconciliation and building bridges.
During the funeral oration, Rev McCully described Mr Tyrie, who passed away last week at the age of 85, as quick to jump to the aid of people around him, even if it meant sacrificing his own well-being, as well as “a family man [whose] family meant everything to him” and “a man with an amazing sense of humour who could laugh at almost anything”.
“But,” he added, “we would be fooling ourselves if our understanding of Andy Tyrie was only just a loving family man. Andy’s life and history is very public and well documented.
“Forgiveness isn’t something much talked about, and sometimes it’s grossly misunderstood. But when it comes to our province, to our community, and to our family, and to us as individuals, it’s something that is so desperately needed – there really is a lot to be forgiven.”
Recalling his own “raw and vivid” memories of losing a family member to the Troubles 50 years ago, the minister asked: “How do you reconcile forgiveness and bitterness?
“The only place we can really deal with it is at the Cross of Christ; it’s at the Cross where reconciliation takes place, and this was where Andy got to. Andy went through a change, a gospel change found in Jesus.”
Explaining that Mr Tyrie found religion a little over 20 years ago, Rev McCully said: “One of the phrases I often heard from Andy’s lips was “I am so blessed” – blessed with family, a home, a garden.
“But true blessing comes from God when sins are forgiven, and to know and have this forgiveness from our sins means that we are indeed really blessed.”
Speaking of the importance as a Christian of confessing and facing up to one’s own sins, he added: “Forgiveness is not just important, forgiveness is absolutely necessary.
“Blessed is the man whose transgressions and sin are forgiven.”