Family of Tunisia shooting victims gathers to mark loss

The last time Pat Evans was in Holy Cross Church in West Bromwich, where he was married to Maureen half a century before, he had a six-inch nail and a hammer in his hand.

"We had a photograph of Pope John Paul II that kept falling down," said his friend, Irishman Gerry Carroll. "Pat said he knew how to fix him. And he did. That photograph won't be going anywhere."

The 78-year-old Evans, along with his son Adrian and grandson Joel, were among the 30 British killed in last month’s Tunisian beach attack, which also claimed three Irish lives.

The hearses carrying Evans, his son and grandson, who played Gaelic football with the James Connolly club in Birmingham, returned to Holy Cross yesterday, accompanied by hundreds of mourners.

Getting out of a car, Joel’s 16-year-old brother, Owen, who had tried to comfort the wounded on the beach just seconds after the firing had stopped, was hugged by family, neighbours and friends.

Hundreds of people, unable to get into the church, watched as the coffins were taken from the hearses as the loudspeaker brought forth the strains of Nat King Cole. In the midst of grief, the words sought to uplift: “Smile though your heart is aching, / Smile even though it’s breaking, / When there are clouds in the sky.”

‘Exceptional talent’

A banner for James Connolly’s hung on a security fence outside, paying tribute to the youngest of the victims, who had travelled with them for games in

Ireland

: “A player of exceptional talent.”

Remembering his friend, Gerry Carroll, who left Ireland in 1968, finished just as emotion overcame him, with a quote from Bob Hope: “Dear friend, thanks for the memories.”

During years spent working together in the now closed Newby Foundry, Pat Evans, born in Wales to Irish parents, had carefully instructed the younger staff. “Molten metal has no friends, he used to say,” said Carroll.

Evans’s son Adrian, better known as Ade, was a man with doubtful taste in music, Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton featuring prominently, said his friend and colleague Adrian Scarrett, but he was a colleague supreme.

“On the day, there were no words. Today, there are too many words, but not enough time,” Scarrett said.

Many of the wreaths laid outside and inside the church spoke of football, calling to mind Joel's budding career as a referee, "one that would have taken him to the Premier League", said Mike Penn of the Football Association.

Having begun, unusually enough, to referee as a 16-year-old, Joel had progressed rapidly, watched proudly at every game by his grandfather, no matter where it took place.

Pat Evans had been inseparable from his son and his grandsons Joel and Owen, travelling together for Walsall football matches, for holidays, “for everything”.

“The relationship between these different generations marked the true definition of a close-knit family. They weren’t forced to spend time together. They chose to spend time together,” said Mandy Churchill, one of the closest friends of Evans’s daughter Suzie, who lost her father, her brother and son in the beach violence.

Closeness

The closeness of the trio in life made death’s parting even more painful for those left behind, she said: “[It] makes it unbearable. They will have to learn to live on the good fortune of the past.”

In his eulogy, Msgr Bruce Herbert said the deaths of the three had been “the result of evil committed in the name of another religion and an attack on British values. But there are no British values that are not also Christian values, in particular the value of freedom.”

He added later: “There are no suicide bombers in the Christian community.”

Following Mass, the coffins, each carrying a Walsall FC scarf, were taken for cremation, before family and friends gathered at the football club for a final private celebration of their lost relatives’ lives.