‘I only hope something good will come from this’

A CLOSE friend of Lyra McKee said it is his hope that ‘something good will come’ from her murder in Derry this week.

Gavyn Anderson, 31, has been a close friend of Ms McKee’s for some 13 years.

She wrote about their friendship in a number of articles, including a letter to her 14 year-old self, which has since gone viral.

Mr Anderson is from a unionist background, while Ms McKee was from a nationalist area of Belfast. However, she was a galvanising figure who united people from all walks of life, of differing viewpoints and of different political persuasions, he told the Irish Mail on Sunday yesterday.

‘Lyra could bring complete political opposites together. I had never even been to a nationalist area in Belfast before I met Lyra. If I had to say one thing that defined her it was her ability to break down barriers. She could reach out to polar opposites.

‘Seeing Arlene Foster and Mary Lou McDonald together [at a vigil in her memory this week] is a scene that she wanted to see.

‘We were, as she wrote, children of the ceasefire. We just clicked when we met at Tech. She called me the ginger skinny boy [in one of her articles]. I can only hope something good will come from this, though I don’t know what it could be.’

Mr Anderson said he is struggling to comprehend that his friend’s life has been cut short.

‘I was due to meet up with her over Easter; now, I am preparing to say goodbye. A part of me doesn’t believe it. No one really believes it. I will greatly, greatly miss her.

Another friend, journalist Suzanne Breen wrote: ‘She was a gem of a journalist and human being. The most compassionate and sensitive person I’ve ever met. She cared about people and stories that nobody else did. At just 29, she’d signed a two-book deal with Faber. You’d never have guessed it. A media rarity, she was totally without ego. Watching footage of the shooting is heartbreaking. I never thought I’d be writing this. They ended your precious life Lyra, but we, who love you, will ensure your memory and work lives on.’