LONDON: Dissident republican group the New IRA on Tuesday took responsibility for killing Northern Irish journalist Lyra McKee last week as police said they had arrested a 57-year-old woman in connection with the shooting.

The New IRA “offer our full and sincere apologies to the partner, family and friends of Lyra McKee for her death,” it said in a statement to The Irish News.

The newspaper said the paramilitary group used a recognised codeword — an established method of communication during the decades of sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland known as “The Troubles”.

McKee, 29, was shot in the head on Thursday as dissident republicans clashed with police in the Creggan housing estate in Northern Ireland’s second city Londonderry, also known as Derry.

Police in Northern Ireland said on Tuesday that a 57-year-old woman had been arrested under the Terrorism Act in connection with the killing.

Two men aged 18 and 19 who were arrested earlier in the investigation have been released without charge.

Tributes to McKee, who was also a writer, were led by her partner Sara Canning, who said her “amazing potential was snuffed out by this single barbaric act”.

While admitting responsibility, the New IRA attempted to justify its actions by claiming she was killed during an attack on “enemy forces”, and accused police of provoking the riot which preceded her death.

“In the course of attacking the enemy Lyra McKee was tragically killed while standing beside enemy forces,” the statement 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,” the New IRA statement said, according to The Irish News.

In the wake of McKee’s death, Northern Ireland’s six main political parties — including rival unionists and republicans who have been unable to form a devolved government for more than two years — issued a rare joint statement. “It was a pointless and futile act to destroy the progress made over the last 20 years, which has the overwhelming support of people everywhere,” it said.

The Saoradh party, which represents dissident republicans but denies being the political wing of the New IRA, said on Friday that “heavily armed” police had gone in to the area “to attack republicans”.

“The inevitable reaction to such an incursion was resistance from the youth of Creggan,” it said.

Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2019