The leaders of Britain and Ireland joined hundreds of mourners yesterday at the funeral of journalist Lyra McKee whose killing by an Irish nationalist militant during a riot has sparked outrage in the province.
Leaders from across Northern Ireland’s political divide sat side by side along with Prime Minister Theresa May, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar and senior members of his government as McKee was remembered in her native Belfast as a “talented and fearless young woman” who broke down barriers.
The New IRA group, which opposes Northern Ireland’s 1998 peace accord, has said one of its members shot 29-year-old McKee dead in Londonderry on Thursday when opening fire on police officers during a riot McKee was watching. The group has not identified the shooter.
“In death Lyra has united people of many different backgrounds,” Roman Catholic Father Martin Magill told the multi-cultural, cross-community service, pleading with those behind her murder to take the road of non-violence.
The killing, which followed a large car bomb in Londonderry in January that police also blamed on the New IRA, has raised fears that small marginalised militant groups are exploiting a two-year political vacuum in the province and tensions caused by Britain’s decision to leave the European Union.
“Why does it take the death of a 29-year-old woman with her whole life in front of her to get us to this point?” Magill said, addressing the politicians with a challenge that received a spontaneous standing ovation in the church.
The 1998 peace agreement ended nearly three decades of “The Troubles” – hostilities between mainly Protestant supporters of continued British rule of the province and mainly Catholic proponents of unification with the Irish Republic.