Journalist Lyra McKee's partner says Good Friday Agreement promise not delivered
ITV News political correspondent Carl Dinnen spoke to Sara Canning on the anniversary of the Northern Irish journalist's death
The partner of slain journalist Lyra McKee believes the promise of the Good Friday Agreement has not yet been entirely fulfilled.
Lyra McKee died after being hit by a bullet during rioting in the Creggan area of Londonderry, Northern Ireland, on April 18, 2019. The dissident republican group the New IRA have been linked to her killing.
Marking the anniversary of her death, Ms McKee's partner, Sara Canning, told ITV News: "Whilst we can commemorate certainly I think celebrations are still quite premature. I'm also very acutely aware of where it has fallen down and no more so than today."
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak paid tribute to Ms McKee, praising her as the embodiment of a "better Northern Ireland".
In a tribute issued by Downing Street to mark four years since the shooting, Mr Sunak said: "Today, we remember Lyra McKee, a journalist who caught the imagination of young people in Northern Ireland.
"In strongly rejecting sectarianism, she embodied the Northern Ireland that I see today - one of realising a better Northern Ireland than what had come before her.
"We stand united against the insidious ideology of those who stole her dreams and what she could have gone on to contribute."
Ms McKee was remembered as part of an event at the Guildhall in Derry on Tuesday.
Former US president Bill Clinton and ex-US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, both in Northern Ireland to attend events reflecting on the past and future of the peace deal, were also guests at a special screening in Belfast of a film about Ms McKee.
Clinton said her life was a testament to the unlimited potential of the people of her generation.
"Her death is a powerful reminder that there are few permanent victories in politics or life," he said.
"We owe it to her to - in her words - to say goodbye to bombs and bullets once and for all."
The Clintons' visit to Derry in 1995 was a watershed moment for the city.
Clinton was the first sitting US president to visit Northern Ireland, and his trip gathered huge crowds as the peace process built momentum, amid hopes the Troubles era would finally come to an end.
Three years later, the Good Friday Agreement would be signed.
The Clintons' latest visit comes days after US President Joe Biden's high-profile tour of the islands of Ireland, in which he met leaders, celebrated his own Irish ancestry, and urged Stormont to return to power-sharing.
Asked what it meant to Northern Ireland to have the Clintons visit again, Ms Canning reflected: "There will be people who will see the significance of it and there's people who will remember when they was here the last time and it will echo back to that and maybe it's something to give a glimmer of hope."
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