Some years ago I read of research into post-insurgency situations.
It found that there was a 15-year hiatus in order for the various sides on the conflict to find a political solution that would endure.
Why 15 years?
Good question.
Apparently, that is the time it takes to rear the next generation of males of military age.
The scéal coming out of Creggan is that that person who pulled the trigger that took Lyra from us was almost certainly teenager.
That means that the shooter wasn’t born at the time of the Good Friday Agreement 21 years ago.
The GFA was a triumph for the art of politics and the constructive ambiguity contained within it was meant to buy time in order to build trust.
That treaty was created to put in place the structures that would address the roots of the conflict.
When it was signed the DUP were outside the tent.
Then they got their red lines addressed in the St Andrews Agreement in 2006.
Since then they have staunchly refused to honour their commitments for Acht Na Gaeilge.
They’ve also shamefully Stonewalled on marriage equality.
Stay classy Arlene…
Lyra found the love of her life in Derry.
They were planning to have their wedding in Donegal.
There is only one part of this island where faith-based social policy prevents two people of the same gender from being married.
A century on from the Home Rule Crisis the idea of Rome Rule from Dublin is risible.
Nationalist areas in the Six Counties like Creggan still suffer from appalling deprivation.
However, it will be addressed with ballot papers, not bullets.
Like Doctor Dolittle’s strange creature the Dissident Republicans and the DUP have become conjoined into a constitutional pushmi-pullyu.
The former stains the cause of reunification and the latter makes the case for 32 Counties within the European Union.
However, the DUP can be dealt with politically.
As they see their strength waning as demographics eat into their natural constituency I believe that they will become amenable to a new dispensation.
The days at the back of the bus for the people of Creggan is over and it isn’t coming back.
The British State tried to crush the people of Derry and they failed.
Of course, there was a time when it was seen as a perfectly acceptable response within that community to physically oppose the Crown Forces at the end of your street.
Thankfully those days are gone and anyone who is otherwise minded probably has a dark erotic attachment to the use of weaponry.
The Dissident Republicans are not “at war” with the Brits rather they’ve stumbled into a conflict with a city full of very sound people.
Moreover, they’re about to find that out!
The people of Derry are different class and I’ve always appreciated their sense of themselves.
They rose up against the Orange State in 1969 and they weren’t broken by Bloody Sunday or fooled by Widgery.
Indeed, there isn’t much that the people of that city can’t achieve when they come together in grief or righteous anger.
Therefore, the old men who cynically groomed a kid to take a beautiful life last Friday had better watch out.
Beware a risen people.
The young fellas of Derry deserve a chance of a life free from fear.
Lyra called the Dissident Republicans “middle-aged conflict junkies”.
As ever, she had it nailed.
Today I’m in Dublin for an NUJ meeting.
We have much to discuss and the cause of the Fourth Estate in Ireland is one worth struggling for.
However, we’ve lost one of our own and we’re hurting.
An attack on one is an attack on all.
On this small island, politics has to win and vibrant journalism is an integral part of that process.
At our best, we hold power to account and bear witness.
That is what Lyra was doing when her life was ended by an act of nihilistic futility.
She would have wanted a better future for the kid who was seduced into pulling a trigger.
What happened on Creggan last Friday night is not the way to find meaning in a dreary existence.
As I write this I feel that my wee pal is on my shoulder suggesting I tone down the anger.
That was her all day long.
I suppose it is a state of mind…
Please, let Lyra be the last.
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You know the quote…”Ireland unfree…..”
It wasn’t an attack on a journalist, despite the tragic results. She was in the wrong place, at the wrong time.
How can we eulogise about those interned in Frongoch, and sing songs about those who gave their own lives, but took many more, and then tell others that they should not lift a gun? Hypocrisy? Or is it a natural progression from rebellious youth to pragmatic middle-age. Maybe if today’s pragmatic middle-aged had, when they were the rebellious youth, listened to their elders, our recent history would have been different? Someone once said that every Irish generation will suffer a blood sacrifice while England is in Ireland. We can pretend we’ve won, if it makes us feel better, and justifies our criticism of those who are now as we once were, but we fool only ourselves.
Last time I looked, the Six Counties are still coloured a reddish pink on the map.
The best post you have ever written Phil
R.I.P Lyra x