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The Lyra McKee Inaugural Memorial Lecture will take place in Crumlin Road Gaol tonight Wednesday 1st November 2023 at 7.30.p.m on the eve of the United Nations International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists. Organised by the Belfast and District NUJ branch the event is free and is open to all. You can book your ticket at www.eventbrite.co.uk
Lyra McKee was shot dead as she worked observing a riot in Creggan, Derry, just before midnight on Thursday 18 April 2019, the eve of the 21st anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. Her murder shocked people right across the world and it was a watershed moment for her media colleagues.
The National Union of Journalists are determined that this young woman who had already accomplished so much by the age of 29 and with so much potential for her future career should be remembered and honoured.
Lyra McKee was born in 1990 in Belfast. Her interest in journalism began at 14 when she wrote for the school newspaper, St Gemma's High School. By 2005 she joined Headliners, a charity that supports young people through helping them develop journalism skills.
In 2006 Lyra was awarded the Sky News Young Journalist Award. In 2011, McKee joined the staff of news aggregator Mediagazer, and in 2014, she came to wider public attention with the publication of a blog post titled "Letter to my 14-year-old self" in which she described the challenges of growing up gay in Belfast; it was subsequently made into a short film.
The evening will be opened by Alison Miller, a long-term colleague and friend of Lyra, who will introduce a clip from her award-winning film for Channel 4, ‘Lyra’, which was shown earlier this year to an audience in QFT, attended by Hillary and Bill Clinton. The event was to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement and was addressed by Hillary Clinton.
Alison will be followed by keynote speaker Susan McKay, a highly respected journalist, author, and Ireland’s Press Ombudsman.
After the keynote speech, a panel composed of Nichola McKee Corner, Lyra’s sister, Seamus Dooley, NUJ Irish Secretary and Father Martin Magill, whose address at Lyra’s funeral service in St Anne’s Cathedral resonated internationally, will discuss Lyra’s life and work.
They will be joined by Natasha Hirst, President of the NUJ (video address) and Dunja Mijatovic, Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, who will participate in the panel through Zoom.
Before Susan McKay closes the evening, there will be an opportunity for participants at the lecture to question the panel and share their own memories of Lyra.
Anne Hailes, Chair of Belfast & District NUJ, said: "We are proud to have had such NUJ colleagues as Lyra McKee, Martin O’Hagan who was shot and died in Lurgan in 2001, (no one has been convicted of his murder and so the file is still open), and Veronica Guerin who was shot in 1996. Their work and memory live on. And it is appropriate that this lecture will be held on the eve of International Day of Impunity for Crimes against Journalists."
Lyra was survived by her large and loving family and by her fiancée, Sara Canning, and by her very many friends. Her mother, Joan, died just months after Lyra.
