LYRA - Lyra- An intimate portrait of Journalist Lyra McKee to be shown on TG4

A documentary feature by Alison Millar, LYRA is an emotive, intimate film portrait of the life and death of celebrated Northern Irish journalist and LBGTQ+ advocate Lyra McKee, who was shot dead by Irish Dissident Republicans in April 2019 aged 29. Millar’s key ambition with her documentary was to commemorate the anniversary of Lyra McKee’s murder and use her friend’s voice as much as possible in telling her story.

Millar’s documentary is a story of present-day Northern Ireland from McKee’s perspective and reflects on its tormented past through the prism of the ground-breaking investigations the journalist wrote about.

The documentary's use of unique, unheard personal archive assembled from McKee’s dictaphones, her family’s home movies, personal text messages and cell phone diaries collected from family, friends, her partner Sara Canning and Millar’s own archive to tell the journalist’s story and the country she practiced her art in makes it powerful and immediate.

The often-heart-rending interviews with McKee's close family -- including mother Joan who died shortly after the documentary was finished and her loving sister Nicola -- and her many friends, admirers and advocates of her work in journalism is insightful and illuminates her humanity amid the tragedy.

As the voice of Northern Ireland’s ‘ceasefire generation’, McKee embodied hope for a future free of conflict. Her death remains another tragic milestone for a country trying to shake off the shackles of its violent past.

Millar’s film examines the rise and death of an extraordinary voice in journalism in a country that continues to hurt.

McKee's shocking death made global headlines and tributes flooded the digital world for days. Messages quoting lines from her work were retweeted by a staggering array of people from the Irish president to legendary New York musician Patti Smith and former US president Bill Clinton.

US politician and speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, who had been in Derry the day before McKee’s murder to highlight just how dangerous the threat was to the Good Friday agreement, held a press conference and a minute’s silence in memory of the journalist. Her funeral in Belfast was attended by British and Irish Heads of State.

McKee garnered international acclaim for her journalism and writing which included ground-breaking work detailed in Millar's documentary.

For her TED X Talk in 2017 McKee rehearsed with Millar after she’d decided to deliver it about a recent trip to the U.S.A. McKee met the families and survivors of the Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando, Florida, when 49 people had been killed in an anti-gay attack. The emergency response and support first came from a part of the Muslim community. McKee wanted her TED talk to encourage people to talk to those who oppose your view and promote tolerance and understanding.

McKee also conducted an investigation into the unsolved mystery of boys disappearing during the 1970s in Belfast. Her first book in a two-book deal with Faber & Faber was entitled The Lost Boys in which McKee examines the disappearance of the boys during the conflict at that time.

To date LYRA has played at Cork International Festival, Ireland, Sheffield Doc Festival, England, Giffoni in Italy and the Solidarity Festival Tel Aviv. In all four countries audiences have responded with standing ovations. LYRA’s story is universal and her indomitable spirit and hope for a better world are finding a home in the hearts of all.

Winner of the prestigious Tim Hetherington Award at Sheffield Doc Festival, the Audience Award at CIFF, GFX best Documentary at Giffoni and Best Documentary at the solidarity Festival Tel Aviv Theatrical release date in UK and Ireland is November 4th 2022 with USA screenings in Spring 2023. LYRA has been shortlisted for the 2023 coveted IDA’s.

The documentary begins on TG4 at 9.30pm.