4 held over journalist Lyra McKee murder in N.Ireland

LONDON

Four men have been arrested in connection with the murder of journalist Lyra McKee last year, Northern Ireland police said on Tuesday.

The men, age 20, 27, 29 and 52, were detained in Londonderry and taken to Belfast for questioning.

The New IRA – a splinter dissident group – had claimed responsibility for the “accidental” murder of McKee, who was shot dead on April 18, 2019 while police dealing with a riot were shot at.

"I welcome today's developments in the Lyra McKee murder investigation,” PSNI Chief Constable Simon Byrne said on social media.

“Detectives are working hard in the pursuit of justice. Anyone with information should come forward to police."

At the time of the murder, tensions in Northern Ireland were high due to the uncertainties of Brexit and the lack of devolved government since its collapse in January 2017.

Aftermath of ‘Troubles’

A car bomb which targeted a courthouse in Londonderry (Derry) in January 2019 was blamed by local police on the self-declared “New IRA” – Irish Republican Army.

A plot to blow up a ferry on Brexit day, this Jan. 31, was thwarted by the local police after suspicion was raised with social media messages.

The border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic was one of the thorniest issues in Brexit negotiations between the U.K. and EU.

A Brexit deal reached and ratified now aligns Northern Ireland with the EU, avoiding a hard border for the time being.

Northern Ireland voted to remain in the EU in the 2016 referendum, and it is feared that the Brexit process could trigger enmity in the region.

The Troubles – an era of conflict between the British government and pro-British paramilitaries on one side and Irish republicans and nationalists on the other – ended in 1998 after the Belfast Agreement put an end to decades of armed struggle in the divided U.K. region of Northern Ireland.

The U.K. and the Republic of Ireland signed the deal, brokered by the U.S. and eight political parties in Northern Ireland, on April 10, 1998.

The deal ­– dubbed the Good Friday Agreement – largely saw the end of the Troubles-era violence, in which some 3,500 people lost their lives.

However, splinter IRA groups are still active in the U.K. region.

Londonderry, where McKee was killed, was one of the locations that saw the fiercest clashes during the Troubles and the scene of the 1972 Bloody Sunday incident, during which British paratroopers killed 14 civil rights movement protesters.