DUBLIN — Amid widespread condemnation and anger at the killing of a journalist in Northern Ireland last week, a paramilitary group calling itself the New Irish Republican Army took the unusual step on Tuesday of admitting responsibility for the act and offering its “full and sincere” apologies to her partner, family and friends. The admission came as the Police Service of Northern Ireland announced that it had arrested a 57-year-old woman in connection with the shooting, which occurred Thursday night in the city of Londonderry. Two teenage men who were arrested on Saturday for questioning were later released without charge. The journalist, Lyra McKee, 29, died after she was hit by a pistol bullet fired at the police during a riot in the strongly Roman Catholic and nationalist Creggan area of Londonderry, which republicans generally call Derry. She is believed to be the first journalist killed in the line of work in the United Kingdom since 2001, and her death is seen as a worrying echo of the Troubles of 1968 to 1998, when more than 3,500 people — many, like Ms. McKee, nonaligned civilians — died in violence pitting mainly Catholic republican gunmen seeking a united Ireland against the police, British soldiers and mainly Protestant gangs defending Northern Ireland’s union with Britain.<doc-sep>A dissident Irish republican group called the New IRA has reportedly claimed responsibility for killing journalist Lyra McKee during a riot last week in Northern Ireland. The paramilitary organization said Monday that one of its volunteers had shot McKee by mistake while aiming at police "enemy forces" in the city of Londonderry, which is also known as Derry. According to a statement sent to The Irish News, the group said it offered its "full and sincere apologies" to McKee's family and friends. The newspaper said the statement was sent using a recognized code word, but its veracity has not been independently confirmed by NBC News. The apology was widely rejected, with people across the region's polarized political spectrum coming together to condemn McKee's shooting. Journalist and author Lyra McKee in 2017. Jess Lowe / via AFP - Getty Images On Tuesday, a 57-year-old woman was arrested in connection with the shooting and held in the Northern Irish capital of Belfast under terrorism laws, police said. Two teenagers previously held have been released without charge. "Lyra was killed by shots that were fired indiscriminately … in a residential area, at a time when there were large numbers of local people on the street, including children," Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy told reporters Saturday. "The brutal nature of the attack has sent shockwaves around the world," Murphy added. "The gunman showed no thought for who may have been killed or injured when he fired these shots." At just 29, McKee was regarded as a gifted investigative journalist, not only covering the legacy of her homeland's violent past but also talking about growing up as a gay person in Belfast. Her death is the latest sign that, while the conflict that plagued Northern Ireland for decades has calmed, it has far from vanished. The New IRA is the most recent paramilitary organization to use the name of the Irish Republican Army, after the original incarnation that fought for Irish independence starting in 1919. Authorities believe the New IRA to be the country's largest active dissident organization. It was formed in 2012 out of smaller splinter groups including the Real IRA, which was behind the 1998 Omagh bombing and classified as a terrorist organization by the State Department. The British government considers any organization with IRA in its name as a terrorist group. The New IRA aims to continue the decades-long struggle to unite Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, and the Irish Republic, which is a separate country. This sectarian divide — between mainly Catholic "republicans," mainly protestant "loyalists" and British authorities — resulted in a three-decade conflict called "the Troubles," which claimed 3,000 lives. It ended with a 1998 peace deal. The New IRA rejects this agreement. As well as being linked to several murders in recent years, the group claimed responsibility for sending four parcel bombs to Glasgow University, London's Waterloo Station and buildings around two airports in the British capital. The group did apologize for McKee's death this week, but in the same breath also blamed British police for an "incursion" that "provoked rioting" in Londonderry's mainly Catholic neighborhood of Creggan. Mourners gather around a floral memorial for Lyra McKee in Londonderry on Saturday. Paul Faith / AFP - Getty Images It added that "we have instructed our volunteers to take the utmost care in future when engaging the enemy, and put in place measures to help ensure this." While largely forgotten in mainland Britain, the Northern Irish issue has crept back into headlines in recent years thanks to Brexit. Until now, both Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic have been part of the European Union. This means their border can be all but invisible, thanks to the E.U. 's trade regulations allowing members to operate almost like a single country. In fact, erasing the symbolic border was a key tenet of the Good Friday Agreement, the name of the 1998 peace deal that ended "the Troubles." After Brexit, Britain, including Northern Ireland, might lose these shared regulations that allow this border to remain invisible. Many fear that returning to a "hard border" — perhaps dotted with guard posts and personnel — will become a target for attacks by paramilitaries seeking to stir up unrest. Even now, Britain's domestic counterintelligence agency, MI5, puts almost one quarter of its resources toward "Northern Ireland-related terrorism," according to government figures. While not at the level of the 1970s, last year alone there were 16 paramilitary shootings, 15 bombings and 159 people arrested under terror laws in Northern Ireland, police said.<doc-sep>Despite its name, the New IRA is firmly wedded to the past. The group has its origins in republican splinter organizations that formed in opposition to the Northern Ireland peace process of the 1990s. The group's admission of guilt over the killing of 29-year-old journalist Lyra McKee was no surprise for Londonderry/Derry's nationalist community, although its excuses angered many. The New IRA had accused police of provoking rioting that preceded the gun attack in which McKee died. It said the journalist had been "standing beside enemy forces." The qualified admission came after pressure to apologize from far-left republican group Saoradh (meaning ‘liberation'), which acts as its mouthpiece. Dangerous remnant of darker days The Belfast-based New IRA — with members across the UK and Ireland — is now seen as the most dangerous dissident republican faction. The group's strongholds are in Catholic-majority western parts of the province, such as Derry, Strabane and Country Tyrone. British security forces and police in Northern Ireland say its membership may amount to a few hundred core members, but stress it is limited. McKee's killing prompted an outpouring of grief in Northern Ireland's second city It's thought that the group includes members old enough to have been involved in the Provisional IRA during the Troubles, as well as inexperienced younger members born since the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. Read more: Brexit drags up Northern Ireland's dark past After McKee's death, the Police Service of Northern Ireland referred to "a new breed of terrorists coming through the ranks." The group has been linked to: The murders of two prison officers, one who was shot in 2012 and another who died after a bomb exploded beneath his van in 2016. Letter bombs sent to targets in London and Glasgow in March this year, causing no casualties. A car bombing attack outside a courthouse in Derry, causing no injuries. Two of the smaller groups that fed into the New IRA which are also suspected of the killing of a Northern Ireland police officer in 2011, and the wounding of another officer the previous year. Why the New IRA? Reference to the "New IRA" was initially made by the media after the group emerged in 2012 — a merger of the "Real IRA" and smaller republican groups that rejected the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. The group is believed to refer to itself simply as the Irish Republican Army. It was the Real IRA — without doubt the New IRA's highest profile parent entity — that carried out the Omagh bombing in August 1998, killing 29 people. Although it took place months after the signing of the peace accord, the Omagh bombing was the single deadliest attack of Northern Ireland's Troubles. The Real IRA was warned to disband by the Provisional IRA, from which it had formed as a splinter group after the Good Friday Agreeement. After a ceasefire, the Real IRA re-emerged. Past repeating itself? Another contributor to the New IRA's makeup was the vigilante organization Republican Action Against Drugs. The group, mainly active in the Derry area of Northern Ireland, was primarily dedicated to carrying out punishment shootings against drug dealers. However, it also had strong attachments to the old Provisional IRA. The Omagh atrocity caused shock across the community divide, most — both Catholic and Protestant — eager to embrace the blossoming peace. The Real IRA was an object of derision, and never really recovered from the legacy of the Omagh bombing . McKee's death was remembered in graffiti at Free Derry Corner With the killing of Lyra McKee, and the nationalist community's rapid rejection of its apology for her death, the New IRA could be set on a similar path. A community already alienated The group was condemned over McKee's death by Sinn Fein — a party which, during the Troubles, was regarded as the Provisional IRA's political wing. It was dismissed as a "tiny group of reckless people who represent nothing and nobody," by Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald. Read more: At Irish border, Brexit evokes history of violence Graffiti in nationalist areas of Derry in the wake of McKee's killing also showed a real rejection of the militants by the wider community. "Not in Our Name. RIP Lyra," read a message at Free Derry Corner, a focal point for nationalist sentiment in Northern Ireland's second city. Elsewhere, paint daubed over grafitti supporting the militant dissidents lampooned them as being "done" and "defeated."<doc-sep>
A paramilitary group calling itself the New Irish Republican Army admitted responsibility for the slaying of Northern Ireland journalist Lyra McKee in a letter to local media late Monday. “In the course of attacking the enemy Lyra McKee was tragically killed while standing beside enemy forces,” the militant group said in a statement provided to the Irish News, which was verified using a recognized code word. “The IRA offer our full and sincere apologies to the partner, family and friends of Lyra McKee for her death.” McKee was standing near police when she was shot in the head around 11 p.m. on Thursday in Creggan, a suburb in the city known as Derry to Irish nationalists and Londonderry to British unionists. The unrest in the city came just before the Easter weekend, when republican dissidents, who want to reunify Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland, traditionally mark the anniversary of the 1916 Easter Uprising against British rule. The New IRA said Monday that the rioting prior to McKee’s death was “provoked” by police. “On Thursday night, following an incursion on the Creggan by heavily armed British crown forces which provoked rioting, the IRA deployed our volunteers to engage,” it said. “We have instructed our volunteers to take the utmost care in future when engaging the enemy, and put in place measures to help ensure this,” it added. The New IRA, a spinoff of the Provisional IRA that agreed to the Good Friday peace accord in 1998, rejects the Good Friday agreement, which put an end to three decades of sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland that claimed more than 3,600 lives. It wants to bring about a united Ireland.