TRIBUTES were paid by the Bishop of Connor, the Rt Revd Alan Abernethy, to the former Unionist leader James Henry Molyneaux, Baron Molyneaux of Killead, who died on Monday, aged 95. He led the Ulster Unionist Party from 1971 to 1995, and, although an Orangeman and sometime Sovereign Grand Master of the Royal Black Institution, helped to raise funds for a Roman Catholic church that was burned down in the late 1990s by Loyalist arsonists.

Bishop Abernethy described him as a man of loyal service to the Church and wider community. "As a parishioner of St Catherine's, Killead, Aldergrove, since childhood, weekly worship and choir membership were integral to his life, the hallmarks of someone who made a faithful contribution to his local as well as the wider community. He will be greatly missed," he said.

"I wish to express gratitude for his service to God and the Church, and to acknowledge the distinctive part he played in political life here, as well as in his role in the RAF during the Second World War, and the liberation of Belsen. Lord Molyneaux's family circle is in our prayers at this time."