More than 30 years ago David Ervine was committed to killing Catholics in Northern Ireland as a member of the outlawed UVF. He spent six years in the loyalist block of the Maze prison after he tried to drive a car bomb into west Belfast in 1974.

His brother Brian summed up his journey in his eloquent eulogy at last Friday's funeral service. "He had the guts and the courage to climb out of the traditional trenches, meet the enemy in no man's land and play ball with him. David, " he said, "wanted to translate the bloodstained tragic prose of violence and hatred to the poetry of peaceful co-existence."

There could be no greater testament to his efforts than the hundreds of people who lined the streets of Belfast to pay their respects. Mourners led by Ervine's wife Jeanette and his sons Owen and Mark were comforted by politicians representing communities north and south.

A most remarkable image - carried in almost every Irish and British newspaper yesterday - showed Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams embracing Jeanette Ervine after the service. It was a historical moment, one that nobody could have imagined possible just a few short years ago and the best possible legacy of her late husband's struggle for peace and reconciliation.

In a single gesture David Ervine's one-time avowed enemy provided the most fitting testimonial of all to David Ervine's enduring hope for Northern Ireland. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.