MOURNERS at the funeral of Billy McConville have heard how he stood up to "raise his voice" for justice.
Family and friends gathered in west Belfast to say their farewells to the 50-year-old, who died from cancer at the weekend.
Just weeks ago Mr McConville made a death-bed appeal through the Irish News for politicians to break the political deadlock to ensure victims of institutional abuse got the justice.
Mr McConville was one of 10 children orphaned after their widowed mother Jean was abducted and murdered by the IRA in 1972.
Put into care in Catholic-run institutions from the age of six Mr McConville said he was subjected to sexual and physical abuse.
Priest Fr Patrick McCafferty told the congregation that the "lifelong nightmare of terror and trauma" suffered by Mr McConville "must never be forgotten".
A floral wreath accompanied the hearse to St Paul's Church in west Belfast bearing the words 'daddy' along with two large frames photographs of his mother which were carried into the church by family members.
Relatives also donned WAVE United football shirts, a cross community football team run by WAVE Trauma Centre.
As the father-of-four's remains were brought into the church, a family member revealed one of his last wishes was to be carried in "feet first as a last defiant gesture for abuse victims" that he was still standing up for justice.
Among the mourners was abuse victims campaigner Margaret McGuckin, Paul Gallagher of the Victims and Survivors Forum and members of Wave including Alan McBride as well as Rev Ruth Patterson, director of Restoration Ministries and Methodist minister Rev David Clements.
Mr McConville's death came just weeks after he appealed for Stormont politicians to sort out their differences saying any redress would come too late for him.
He appeared before a Historical Institutional Abuse public inquiry in 2014 when he described suffering sexual and physical harm after being placed in Catholic care homes as a youngster following his mother's abduction.
The inquiry recommended compensation worth up to £100,000 for the worst affected but the payments have yet to materialise amid the ongoing political crisis at Stormont.
Fr McCafferty told mourners that Mr McConville continued to fight for justice.
"Love and a passion for justice, led Billy to stand with other victims of institutional abuse and to raise his voice, along with theirs, against the evils perpetrated against them, demanding justice and redress," he said.
"There are those with the power to implement the findings of the Historical Institutional Abuse public inquiry. They must do so, immediately, as a matter of urgency.
"All of society has an obligation, to make reparation to these sisters and brothers of ours, who were so deeply wounded during their tender years."
The priest also described how the father-of-four had endured much "heartbreak and sorrow" throughout his life following his mother's abduction.
"The whole world knows the name of a simple Belfast mother who loved her children and who was cruelly abducted, murdered and secretly buried, in December 1972," he said.
"This act of inexcusable wickedness plunged Billy and his brothers and sisters in a lifelong nightmare of terror and trauma.
"We are well aware of the horror of abuse, to which Billy and the others were subjected, by those who had a most grave duty and responsibility, before God, to provide safety, loving care and nurturing affection, to vulnerable little children, who had lost their father and mother in such quick succession.
"The sufferings inflicted on these innocents must never be forgotten."
