- Born
- 31 March 1990Belfast, Northern Ireland
- Died
- 18 April 2019Derry, Northern Ireland · aged 29
Lyra McKee
A young journalist who wrote about the “ceasefire babies” of Northern Ireland – and about growing up gay. She was shot dead at 29.
Lyra McKee grew up in north Belfast in the years after the Good Friday Agreement. As a teenager she began writing and set up a school newsletter. She became an investigative journalist and wrote about the legacy of the Troubles, among other things about the high suicide rate among young people who grew up after the conflict – the “ceasefire babies”.
In 2014 she published a letter to her 14-year-old self, in which she described how hard it had been to grow up gay in a religious environment, and how much better life had become. The text went viral and was made into a short film.
In April 2019 she was observing a riot in the Creggan area of Derry when a member of the dissident republican group the New IRA fired at police. Lyra McKee was hit and killed. She was 29 years old and had been planning to propose to her partner, Sara Canning.
Her death caused outrage across Ireland and Britain. Her funeral in Belfast cathedral, attended by political leaders of all sides, became a call for peace. Her partner and friends continued to campaign, among other things for marriage equality in Northern Ireland, which came into force in January 2020.