An emotional Nicola Corner talks to UTV correspondent Jane Loughrey about the murder of her sister Lyra McKee in Derry last month. PICTURE CREDIT: UTV
The 29-year-old author and writer was shot in the head by the ‘New IRA’ Derry’s Creggan estate on Thursday, April 18, while observing rioting at Fanad Drive during police searches for dissident republican explosives they feared were to be used over the Easter weekend.
Her murder sparked outrage and there was a huge swell of calls for a way to move forward and away from the influence of paramilitaries.
Speaking about the agonising moment she had to identify her beloved sister in Derry’s Altnagelvin Hosptal, Nicola Corner told UTV correspondent Jane Loughrey: “That’s the day our world ended.
“But the world isn’t ending, so we have to make sure that, through our tragedy, something positive emerges.”
Lyra’s family are still struggling to come to terms with their loss, but they desperately want her death not to be in vain.
They have already taken part in a peace walk from Belfast to Derry and it was at the culmination, at Guildhall Square on Monday evening, that Nicola vowed to support her sister’s killers in surrendering.
Explaining why she felt that way, she told UTV: “It couldn’t be easy to walk into a police station and to hand yourself in.
“And so that’s why I don’t want that person to think that if they choose to do that – which is the right thing – that they have to do it by themselves.
“Because they need to be supported in coming forward, that’s my strong feeling on it.”
The suspected New IRA killer who shot dead Lyra McKee in Derry’s Creggan on Thursday, April 18
Three people – a 57-year-old woman and two teen males – were arrested for Lyra’s murder but were later released unconditionally.
Two men were later charged and remanded in custody for their alleged involvement in rioting on the night Lyra was shot dead.
Independent charity Crimestoppers has offered a reward of up to £10,000 for information leading to the arrest and successful conviction of Lyra’s killers.
