Shame on you all
Priest at funeral of journalist, 29, murdered by IRA asks why it took her death to unite politicians
A PRIEST delivered a powerful message at the funeral of murdered journalist Lyra McKee yesterday when he demanded to know why it had taken the horror of her death to unite politicians.
Father Martin Magill received a spontaneous standing ovation as he called her senseless killing a ‘huge injustice’, adding that he also ‘dared to hope’ something so awful could be a ‘doorway to a new beginning’.
He said: ‘Since Thursday night we have seen the coming together of many people in various places and the unifying of the community against violence. I commend our political leaders for standing together in Creggan on Good Friday.’
He then added: ‘I am, however, left with a question: “Why in God’s name 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?”’
Miss McKee was gunned down while observing rioting in Londonderry. She was standing next to a police patrol when she was struck by a bullet. The New IRA terrorist group has confessed that its members killed her.
Yesterday’s congregation included politicians from across Ireland’s political divide, including the heads of Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionist Party, whose power- sharing deal has broken down, leaving Northern Ireland without a working government.
DUP head Arlene Foster sat next to Sinn Fein leaders Michelle O’Neill and Mary Lou McDonald at the Protestant St Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast.
Miss McKee’s family – who are Catholic – said they chose the cathedral for the funeral because of its reputation as a ‘shared space’ in the divided city.
Theresa May, who missed Prime Minister’s Questions to attend the two-hour service, sat in the front row on one side of the cathedral, flanked by Irish president Michael D Higgins and Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar. Jeremy Corbyn sat a couple of rows behind.
Father Magill also called on Miss McKee’s murderers to follow her example of ‘the pen is mightier than the sword’.
He quoted a friend of Miss McKee’s who said: ‘We have had enough. There is a younger generation coming up in the town and they don’t need guns put in their hands. They need jobs, they need a better health service and education. They need a life.’ As the 1,000- strong congregation broke into applause, Father Magill addressed her killers, saying: ‘I plead with you to take the road of non-violence to achieve your political ends.’ Miss McKee’s death on the republican Creggan housing estate came as a mob threw fireworks and petrol bombs as they rioted in the streets on Thursday night. Miss McKee’s mother Joan, 68, brothers Gary, 47, and David, 41, sisters Joan Hunter, 46, Nichola Corner, 44, and Mary Crossan, 39, sat in the front row of the other side of the cathedral. They were joined by other relatives including Miss McKee’s great niece Ava, four, and the partner she had hoped to marry – Sara Canning, 35. Mrs Corner told the congregation how the death of ‘our wee Lyra’, the youngest of the six siblings, will leave an ‘unfillable hole in our mum’s life’.
But she hoped her sister’s lasting legacy would lead to people trying to create a world where ‘labels are meaningless’, where ‘every single person is valued’ and ‘where every single child gets the chance to grow up and to make their dreams come true’.
Quoting Miss McKee herself, Mrs Corner said: ‘We must change our own world one piece at a time. Now let’s get to work.’
Many friends of Miss McKee, who was a campaigner for LGBT rights, wore Harry Potter-themed T- shirts, scarves and badges to the service in honour of her lifelong love of JK Rowling’s books.
Outside, a crowd of several hundred people applauded as it was driven away for a private burial in a hearse with rainbow- coloured flowers on its roof which spelled out the words ‘Team Lyra’.