The two-year letter from Sinn Féin’s Declan Kearney reportedly referred to a possible “cooperation agreement” between Saoradh and Sinn Féin to reach a border vote. It was an attempt to “work towards unity and change the constitutional position, but only with consensus, only from the public working together,” according to Sinn Féin vice-president Michelle O’Neill, who confirmed that Kearney had written a letter to Saoradh. . However, Nichola McKee Corner, Lyra’s sister, described the leak as a split in Sinn Féin’s campaign, an exploitation of Lyra’s murder. In a statement, McKee Corner questioned “the time of publication of this letter (since it is more than two years old) and the links made with my murdered sister” and added that those responsible for the leak “should hang the their head. Too bad I use my beloved sister this way. “ McKee Corner said she was aware of “Sinn Féin’s efforts to encourage dissident democratic groups, including Saoradh, to move away from violence and participate in the political process” from 2019 and that this “encouragement has been unsuccessful to date”. He went on to urge Saoradh and other opposition groups to “accept that the war is over” and that “they must stop the violence once and for all.” McKee, a promising young Northern Irish journalist who wrote about the aftermath of the Troubles, was 29 when she was killed in Derry Creggan in 2019 after being hit by a bullet while reporting violent clashes between the New IRA and police. Two men have since been charged with her murder. McKee’s partner, Sara Canning, also expressed skepticism about the release date, saying the news of the letter did not surprise her and that it was unlikely that efforts would be made to bring Saoradh “to the baby to some degree”. . “I’m not a fan of Sinn Féin, but that ‘s how things were in the 1990s, and so the violence ended here, we brought people into the political arena,” he told the BBC. The letter’s release comes at a time when O’Neill describes it as “a moment in history and a moment for real change” – in an election video posted on Twitter – with opinion polls predicting that Sinn Fein will secure a majority in the forthcoming Assembly elections, which would allow the party to nominate the first Republican first minister in Northern Ireland.
