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Murdered Belfast community worker Ian Ogle died with \u201cunparalleled bravery\u201d while protecting those he thought were in danger, his funeral has heard.<\/p>\nMurdered Belfast community worker Ian Ogle died with \u201cunparalleled bravery\u201d while protecting those he thought were in danger, his funeral has heard.<\/p>\n
The 45-year-old died after he was attacked and stabbed 11 times as he prayed with a pastor on a street in the east of the city last Sunday.<\/p>\n
More than 1,000 mourners, including members of East Belfast Protestant Boys Flute Band, of which Mr Ogle was a member, lined the streets outside his home on Cluan Place, just yards from where he was attacked and left to die.<\/p>\n
There has been speculation that people associated with the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) were responsible for the killing.<\/p>\n
His funeral at Covenant Love Church on the Albertbridge Road heard how the father-of-two died with his son, Ryan, next to him.<\/p>\n
Pastor Kevin Sambrook, who prayed with Ian moments before his death, described the tragic scene.<\/p>\n
\u201cSavage, brutal, barbaric were words used to described Ian\u2019s violent murder but I want to introduce words that described Ian that night \u2013 courageous, fearless and utterly selfless,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe valued the lives of those he felt he needed to protect more than his own.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have known Ian for many years, he was a good friend to the church and to me and I often stopped to chat with him.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the night he was murdered, I had been walking round from the church when I met Ian at the top of Cluan Place. I stopped, shook his hand and we began to talk.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe stood and prayed together for a while before he thanked me and told me he prayed the Lord\u2019s Prayer every day and I knew that.<\/p>\n
\u201cMoments before the attack he reminisced about his Granny who was a strong Christian woman and he said how she would say \u2018you have got to turn the other cheek\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cMoments later Ian was attacked and brutally murdered and I found myself kneeling beside him as he lay dying, praying that Lord would be with him.<\/p>\n
\u201cIan sadly passed away while his son Ryan was with him and others from Cluan Place arrived to give help as well as (daughter) Toni and (wife) Vera. How shocking and traumatic it was for them.<\/p>\n
\u201cIan met his end with unparalleled bravery and died protecting those he believed to be danger without a second thought for his own safety.<\/p>\n
\u201cIan willingly gave his life for others while others willingly took it from him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I witnessed that night will stay with me for the rest of my life but my strongest and most abiding memory will be not of Ian\u2019s murderers, but rather this brave and selfless man displaying supreme courage with a heart of a lion meeting lethal danger head on knowing he never stood a chance, but content to fulfil an obligation to protect others.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw a man that night with dignity.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also described how Ian had moved away from his past and had turned to God towards the end of his life.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cWe may be tempted to ask, what good can come out of this senseless act of barbarity, yet we must believe Ian did not die in vain.<\/p>\n
\u201cA community united in grief, desperate for justice, and brave enough to demand nothing less than change where fear and intimidation no longer remains. The biggest tribute we can pay to Ian is for his death to become that catalyst for that change beginning now.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet me be clear, forgiveness is not forgetting about justice \u2013 which must be relentlessly pursued and the full weight of the law brought to bear upon the guilty.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two men aged 40 and 37 were arrested on Monday by detectives investigating the murder, bringing the total number of people arrested to 11. Mr Ogle\u2019s daughter, Toni Johnston Ogle, joked how she had not prepared a written tribute because one of the qualities her father gave to her was \u201cI could talk the leg off a stool\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not going to say too much but what did Hitler say to his men to get them into their tanks? \u2018Men, get into your tanks\u2019,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMe and Ryan are going to be lost without him, but we have to be there for my mummy. He was her first love and last.\u201d<\/p>\n
Davy Ralston, a community pastor and close family friend, said: \u201cHe was a friend to all with a heart of pure gold.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will all miss him dearly but we now know he\u2019s safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cTo big O\u2019s attackers, depart from evil and do good.\u201d<\/p>\n
DUP MP Gavin Robinson was among those attending the funeral.<\/p>\n