Police in Northern Ireland are blaming an Irish Republican Army splinter group for the death of a journalist who was covering riots Thursday night in Londonderry. Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was in the city the same day to celebrate the anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, the 1998 peace deal the United States helped negotiate.
“We are treating this as a terrorist incident and we have launched a murder enquiry,” assistant chief constable Mark Hamilton said of the shooting of 29-year-old Lyra McKee. He urged witnesses to come forward with any information about the “horrendous and unjustified” death.
“Our assessment at this time would be that the New I.R.A. are most likely to be the ones behind this,” he said, referring to a militant republican group.
The murder came after police carried out searches in a heavily Catholic neighborhood of Londonderry — often called Derry by republicans — on Thursday night amid concerns that militants were stockpiling firearms and explosives ahead of the anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising. Riots followed the searches, and a gunman firing at police officers killed McKee, according to law enforcement.
Belfast Telegraph journalist and BBC commentator Leona O’Neill was on the scene of what she called “serious rioting” and reported that “dozens of petrol bombs have been thrown at police vehicles.” She tweeted soon after, “I was standing beside this young woman when she fell beside a police Land Rover tonight in Creggan #Derry. I called an ambulance for her but police put her in the back of their vehicle and rushed her to hospital where she died. Just 29 years old. Sick to my stomach tonight.”
I was standing beside this young woman when she fell beside a police Land Rover tonight in Creggan #Derry. I called an ambulance for her but police put her in the back of their vehicle and rushed her to hospital where she died. Just 29 years old. Sick to my stomach tonight pic.twitter.com/F0GHHd3HPz
— Leona O’Neill (@LeonaONeill1) April 18, 2019
The Belfast-born McKee was named to Forbes magazine’s “30 Under 30 Europe” list in 2016 for her investigative journalism, which often focused on the Troubles, the 1968 to 1998 period of violent conflict in Northern Ireland. She signed a two-book deal with Faber & Faber last year. The first, The Lost Boys, an examination of the disappearance of young, Belfast men between 1969 and 1975, was set for release next year.
“The loss of a journalist at any time in any part of the world is an attack on truth itself,” Irish President Michael D. Higgins said Friday. He signed a condolence book for McKee’s family in Belfast.
A dissident republican group that organizes an annual memorial marking the Easter Rising canceled this year’s event after the murder, saying in a statement, “The Derry 1916 Commemoration Committee have opted to cancel this Easter Monday’s annual Easter Commemoration as a mark of respect for the tragic and accidental killing of Lyra McKee. Our sympathy extends to the family, friends and loved ones of this innocent woman.”
The Good Friday Agreement between Britain and Ireland on the governance of Northern Ireland was meant to end the long-running violence between Protestant and Catholic groups. Dissident republican organizations such as the New IRA rejected the peace agreement. They want Northern Ireland to leave the United Kingdom and join the Republic of Ireland.
Both California congresswoman Pelosi and Rep. Richard Neal, a Massachusetts Democrat who received an honorary degree from Ulster University’s Magee campus in Londonderry Thursday, spoke about how the Good Friday Agreement had brought peace to Northern Ireland. Pelosi said she hadn’t visited the country since the deal was signed. “That would be 21 years ago, and what a difference there is now,” she said. On Wednesday, she addressed the Republic of Ireland’s legislature in Dublin, calling the Good Friday Agreement a “beacon to the world.” She said Ireland and America both “know the joy of independence” and “endured the traumatic experience of civil war and the satisfaction of rebuilding our nations.”
