Alfie Gallagher pays tribute to Lyra McKee.

I became friends with Lyra McKee through our mutual close friendships with Anthony McIntyre and Ruth Dudley Edwards. That alone will tell you a lot about Lyra: she was a woman of extraordinary empathy and a relentless desire to understand and to befriend. It was what made her a great journalist, one of the outstanding of her generation. Somehow she still managed to be deeply humble, heart-warmingly funny and a tremendously good friend.

Despite our many years of online contact and cheerful banter, one of my greatest regrets is that Lyra and I only met once in person, a moment captured in the treasured photograph above. Foolishly, I presumed we had all the time in the world, and so life inevitably got in the way. A silly boy’s bullet proved me wrong.

I can think of no better legacy than the words of our mutual friend Carrie McIntyre: Be Like Lyra! Rather than indulge in the self-soothing comfort of woke self-righteousness or right-wing arrogance, try to be generous with whomever you disagree. Try to understand “others” and “opponents” rather than to caricature them, especially when you dislike or indeed hate what they stand for.

That is one of the many things that Lyra McKee taught me. Along with her profoundly insightful journalism, that is what she should be remembered for.


Alfie Gallagher blogs @ Left From The West

Be Like Lyra: A Legacy


Alfie Gallagher pays tribute to Lyra McKee.

I became friends with Lyra McKee through our mutual close friendships with Anthony McIntyre and Ruth Dudley Edwards. That alone will tell you a lot about Lyra: she was a woman of extraordinary empathy and a relentless desire to understand and to befriend. It was what made her a great journalist, one of the outstanding of her generation. Somehow she still managed to be deeply humble, heart-warmingly funny and a tremendously good friend.

Despite our many years of online contact and cheerful banter, one of my greatest regrets is that Lyra and I only met once in person, a moment captured in the treasured photograph above. Foolishly, I presumed we had all the time in the world, and so life inevitably got in the way. A silly boy’s bullet proved me wrong.

I can think of no better legacy than the words of our mutual friend Carrie McIntyre: Be Like Lyra! Rather than indulge in the self-soothing comfort of woke self-righteousness or right-wing arrogance, try to be generous with whomever you disagree. Try to understand “others” and “opponents” rather than to caricature them, especially when you dislike or indeed hate what they stand for.

That is one of the many things that Lyra McKee taught me. Along with her profoundly insightful journalism, that is what she should be remembered for.


Alfie Gallagher blogs @ Left From The West

5 comments:

  1. Is that Dudley Edwards? Enough said.

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  2. Alfie

    That is beautiful. Thank you also for calling out those who would use Lyras death. Having seen a particular picture in the media today I could not help but think of Paul Quinn every bone in his body broken on the way to his death, the children of Yemenkilled every day and those who have ended their lives due to the actions of the organised rape gang that is the catholic church.

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  3. The previous post was by David mc Sweeney

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  4. Thanks, David. I think you are absolutely right that some people, especially politicians in the North, tried to use Lyra's death as a cover for their own failures and cynical strategies.

    It takes a rare degree of courage and integrity to admit the failures, the mistakes and the misdeeds of one's own side. Certainly none of the mainstream political parties in either Ireland or Britain seem capable of the kind of necessary reevaluation and searing self-scrutiny that Anthony demonstrated in his response to Lyra's killing. That's why many of those who quite rightly condemn the New IRA are utterly blinkered when it comes to post-GFA Provo violence on the one hand, or British foreign policy in the Middle East on the other.

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