Ola Larsmo: the Murder of Lyra McKee was the last thing northern Ireland needed

It is a strange film. A number of people of different ages go in seriously until a green wall with one hand dipped in red paint and leave their imprint. They are sommarklädda but deeply serious. It all took place on Sunday in Derry, northern Ireland.

the House with the green wall is the extreme of the republican party Saoradhs office. The red hand is historically the symbol of the northern irish county of Ulster. But this is about terrormordet on the journalist Lyra McKee on Thursday, who was shot in the head while she watched the riots in the district of Creggan. What the young protesters say is: you have blood on your hands.

his death has become known throughout the world. She had perhaps been too if she had lived: she was one of Ireland's top young journalists, who wrote about growing up as a young gay man in Belfast, and on children's and young people's traumas during ”the Troubles”. To the summer, will her book, ”The lost boys” – an exploration of what happened to children who disappeared during the unrest of the seventies and schools. When she was hit by a bullet she stood next to a police car. The suspected killer, 18-year-old, tried probably shoot a police officer. A 57-year-old woman has been arrested for ”involvement” in the murder.

the Newspaper Belfast Telegraph shows in an article on the interplay between terrorism and the media, social as well as traditional. The suspect artonåringen, himself was born after Freduppgörelsen, was until recently ”a regular kid” and his FB pages was about cars and football. Until they suddenly were filled with images of weapons and ”martyrs” tombs. He had, as it is called, radicalized; the pattern goes again, whether we are talking about the jihadists, right-wing extremists or, as here, the extreme nationalists.

riots flared up in the Creggan could be that MTV was there to record an episode of ”Reggie Yates vs The World” and interviewing young ”dissidents”. Much evidence points to that they wanted to show off for the cameras at the same time as the police did a raid to confiscate weapons. The group ”claimed responsibility” for the murder – how do you do it? – calling themselves the New IRA and have clear links to the Saoradh.

Interestingly enough, turning many in the McKees northern ireland generation eyes against the republic of Ireland: a country in rapid change, which was recently voted through the new skilsmässolagar and abortlagar and that has an openly gay prime minister with an immigrant background, mr Leo Varadkar. You have come a long way from the ”papistdiktatur” as Northern ireland's protestants have long viewed as the major threat.

Brexit has received such groupings as Saoradh and their counterparts in the protestantsidan to wake up: the threat of a ”hard limit” straight through the island again is just what they need. But in the wake of the murder of McKee will also now absolutely other tendencies into the light of day: a strong opinion requires that the political cooperation between Sinn Féin and the protestant democratic unionist party to be taken up again, not least faced with the threat of Brexit.

as the tag on the down and twitter. And may not be the traditional politicians face the threat of a new limit more creative and willing to compromise than they have so far, more and more young voters to cast glances towards the south – which is already visible in the rates. The which, ironically, now stands in the way of a rapprochement to the republic of Eire is just the extremists of the Saoradhs kind.