A deeply uncomfortable moment that ought to hasten direct rule

Yet barely any of the dead have had a funeral like that for Lyra McKee.

The reasons for yesterday’s remarkable service at St Anne’s Cathedral are many. One reason is the genuine and widespread revulsion at the murder of a gay journalist aged 29.

Another reason is that Ms McKee was, it has become clear even to those who did not know her, someone who enthusiastically forged a wide range of friendships and contacts.

A further reason was that the killing happened at a time when people are very concerned at political deadlock, and fearful of any return to anything resembling the Troubles. Hence the wide range of mourners yesterday: the prime minister and Taoiseach, the Protestant and Catholic clergy, the LGBT presence, the contingent of politicians, journalists and police.

There was an electric moment when Father Martin Magill praised the political leaders for coming together at the Creggan on Friday, the day after the killing, and then asked why it took the death of a 29-year-old woman for them to do so.

He was interrupted by applause, which turned into a standing ovation. It was a deeply uncomfortable moment for Arlene Foster, Mary Lou McDonald and Michelle O’Neill, sitting near the front, whose leadership he seemed to be criticising.

This newspaper has, and will, repeatedly emphasised that it was Sinn Fein non negotiable demands such as an Irish language act which brought us to this point. But the spontaneous reaction of mourners suggested that people are not so interested in details of blame, but just want progress.

The point is near when there is no alternative to direct rule.

It is to be hoped that London will have the will to minimise Irish input, particularly given Dublin’s republican approach to the legacy of IRA terror, and also the way that Simon Coveney criticised the security response to the severe dissident problem in Londonderry, which has now taken a life.