Riots Flare in N. Ireland After Funeral

LURGAN, Northern Ireland — The bishop presiding over a funeral for an assassinated Roman Catholic lawyer appealed for calm Thursday, saying revenge will only serve those determined to destroy the hopes of the vast majority for peace.

Bishop Francis Gerard Brooks said retaliation would also be disrespectful to the memory of Rosemary Nelson, 40, a human rights lawyer “who strove by political and legal means to right a grievance.”

Thousands of mourners packed St. Peter’s Church in Lurgan, 30 miles southwest of Belfast, to honor Nelson, who died Monday when a bomb planted in her silver BMW exploded. An outlawed Protestant group claimed responsibility.

Her killing was followed by the fatal shooting Wednesday of a paramilitary group member in Belfast, apparently ordered by fellow Protestants. A violent Protestant-Catholic clash later that night in Portadown, near Lurgan, spilled over into gasoline bomb attacks on police, who responded with plastic bullets.

Hours after the funeral Thursday, rioting between hundreds of Protestants and Catholics broke out.

Masked Catholics threw gasoline bombs and stones at police and tried to burn down the Protestant Orange Hall, drawing condemnation from Brid Rodgers, a lawmaker in the moderate Catholic Social Democratic and Labor Party.

Nelson represented Catholic residents in their fight to block Protestant marchers from parading down the thoroughfare in the largely Catholic neighborhood.

In Lurgan, Nelson’s husband, Paul, and three children--Christopher, 13; Gavin, 11, and Sarah, 8--walked to the church hand-in-hand behind her coffin.

A pro-British terrorist group called the Red Hand Defenders has claimed responsibility for killing Nelson, in an apparent bid to wreck the peace process. However, many Catholics have accused the Royal Ulster Constabulary, Northern Ireland’s predominantly Protestant police force, of colluding in the lawyer’s death.

Nelson also represented a number of Irish Republican Army suspects and had complained of threats from RUC officers.