Youths from the strongly loyalist Tullyally area even donned Celtic shirts on Monday evening as a crowd of almost 200 formed a homecoming guard of honour for the body of Ciaran Doherty (17), from the nationalist Currynierin estate.

Ciaran died in hospital on Sunday a week after a car crash on the Ardmore Road.

Pals from both sides of the divide donned the striped shirts bearing the teen's nickname, 'Walla', while others wore Rangers jerseys.

A community worker said people were staggered by the show of solidarity among young people in an area infamous for sectarian rioting.

Ciaran is due to be buried today following a service at St Mary's Chapel in Ardmore, not far from where the fatal accident occurred.

He was killed on when the car he was travelling in left the road on June 1. He was taken to hospital in Belfast but died on June 8.

Four people were arrested at the time of the crash — two of whom have since been released. One has been released on bail and another has been released pending a police report.

Mickey Carlin, a long-time community worker in Currynierin said that Ciaran's family had been left devastated by his death.

"The whole area is in shock. It has affected the whole estate. He was a young boy and his parents just don't know what to do with themselves — they are in bits," he said.

"He was a likeable young fella and this is a small, close knit area.

"On Monday night, when the body was coming home, a big crowd of boys came over from Tullyally. Some of them wore Rangers tops and some of them even put on Celtic jerseys — it was fantastic to see. They were lined the whole way up the estate as the coffin was brought back to the house. All you could see were Celtic jerseys, it was unbelievable. He was Celtic mad.

"A lot of boys had tops with Ciaran's nickname, 'Walla' written on them. It just shows you how well he was thought of, bringing people together like that. You would never have seen anything like that 10 years ago.

"The support shown from both sides of the community has been a big help to his parents."

Ciaran is survived by parents Charlie and Regina, brothers Sean-Paul, Thomas and Charles and sisters Charmaine and Margaretta.