Reading Lyra McKee while Gaza is Burning
In memoriam, five years later
On April 18, 2019, a riot broke out in Derry, Northern Ireland. People took to the streets. Police officers took to the streets. In their riot gear, they waited for violence to settle — or escalate. Cars were burning. Youths started throwing stones at police vehicles. Stones became petrol bombs.
An armored police Land Rover was parked on the side of the road on Fanad Drive. Standing next to it was Belfast journalist Lyra Catherine McKee, there to cover the escalating riot. Moments later she was shot in the head by a New IRA bullet meant for the police.
She passed in another armored Land Rover, as she was hurriedly being transported to Altnagelvin Area Hospital, the same hospital where her partner, Sara Canning, was working as a nurse. McKee had moved to Derry from Belfast to be with her.
She was 29, and a promise of journalism.
She was also a “ceasefire baby” (she hated that term), a member of the first generation to grow up in Northern Ireland after the end of the 30-years-long conflict colloquially known as the Troubles. She represented the new Northern Ireland, a country still divided along sectarian lines but finally at peace.
