LYRA McKee had been planning to propose to partner Sara Canning before she was murdered last week, her funeral has heard.

In a moving tribute Lyra’s friend Stephen Lusty revealed that she had been planning to propose on a trip to New York next month.

Mr Lusty told a packed St Anne’s Cathedral that Lyra had shown him pictures of the engagement ring she had picked out for Sara just hours before she was murdered.

Ms McKee was shot dead in Derry last Thursday night, after rioting in the Creggan area.

Dissident republican group the New IRA has claimed responsibility for her death.

Mr Lusty said that Lyra had made him put a wedding date for “Donegal in 2022” in his diary and that she wanted him to wear his kilt to the ceremony.

“She gave me strict instructions to wear my kilt, which she always wanted to borrow, adorn it with some Harry Potter, and to find or re-find my own version of Sara,” he said.

Mr Lusty told mourners that Lara’s “starlight” filled the cathedral and he praised her as smart, kind and compassionate.

He said she was fearless and naive in her early days.

Speaking personally, he said that Lyra supported him through a dark time in his life, when he was scared, lonely and isolated.

He said she often gave half her dinner money to a homeless person she had come across, making her late when she was due to meet him.

Mr Lustry said Lyra was a “new age punk”, the embodiment of the Troubles-era band Stiff Little Fingers’ Alternative Ulster hit.

“She embodied the future of finding commonality, enjoying difference in others,” he said.

He told the congregation that 40 years later her loss showed what it took to live in an Alternative Ulster.

They had been robbed of a talent destined to become a stateswoman, with only holes left behind.

Her friend said Miss McKee’s lasting legacy should be peace.

“We have two choices, we can look into the holes and wait forever… or we can fill those holes today,” Mr Lusty said.

“Today we grieve but tomorrow let us fill that hole by adopting Lyra’s future and vision.”

Source: Read Full Article