The dissident Republican group known as the New IRA, has admitted in a statement to the killing of Lyra McKee on Thursday 18th April
Lyra was murdered while covering the rioting in the Creggan area of Londonderry in on Thursday evening when an individual fired several shots at the police Land Rover that Lyra was standing beside. One of these shots struck Lyra in her head, but despite being taken quickly to hospital, Lyra died a short time later.
In a statement which was issued to the Irish News, using a recognised code word, the New IRA said;
“On Thursday night following an incursion on the Creggan by heavily armed British crown forces which provoked rioting, the IRA deployed our volunteers to engage.
We have instructed our volunteers to take the utmost care in future when engaging the enemy, and put in place measures to help ensure this.
In the course of attacking the enemy Lyra McKee was tragically killed while standing beside enemy forces.
The IRA offer our full and sincere apologies to the partner, family and friends of Lyra McKee for her death.”
Lyra’s friends met outside the Dissident Republican HQ of Saoradh, Junior McDaid house, on Monday where they covered their hands in red paint and placed their red hand prints on the buildings walls in protest to the murder of their friend.
The red hand prints were said to be a symbol of the ‘blood on the hands’ of the dissidents and their links to Saoradh.
A red handprint has now become a symbol of Kyra McKee’s murder.
