Many times over the past five decades an atrocity has led to a spontaneous groundswell reaction that we hoped would prove to be a watershed moment.
Thursday night's murder of Lyra McKee is the latest example where out of the public mood of revulsion and dismay comes an overwhelming desire to prevent something similar occurring again.
Unfortunately, the past has shown that such appalling episodes rarely have an immediate transformative effect on their own, however, cumulatively such outrages can help alter the course the history.
Yet if the dissident republicans who carried out this murder were moved by condemnation and criticism from opponents they would have disbanded long ago.
Unfortunately, a significant rump is wedded to a culture of armed struggle that belongs in the darkest parts of the 20th century, and despite efforts to highlight the futility of their actions, they continue to kill in the name of republicanism.
Read more:
- Analysis: New IRA has ramped up violence, without aim or objective (premium)
- Jarlath Kearney: Futures cannot be built with bombs or bullets
- Dissident republican group claims journalist Lyra McKee was shot dead 'accidentally' in Derry
Brexit has made this situation potentially more combustible but long before June 2016, when the UK voted to leave the EU, small-minded fanaticists with no support from the wider public were plotting to kill and maim.
The reimposition of a hard border would certainly provide these armed gangs with an excuse to wage war yet to date their campaign has tended to ignore wider political developments.
The sad reality is that those calling themselves the New IRA are likely to do something similarly hideous again but that shouldn't discourage those who are seeking to convince the dissidents that what they are doing is wrong and counterproductive.
Stormont's politicians have taken much criticism over the past two years for their failure to put their differences aside. Yesterday, however, they showed leadership by demonstrating how tragedy can transcend ideology.
Of course, one senseless killing won't suddenly bring Stormont back but it will perhaps remind those within whose gift a restoration of the institutions lies, that allowing the political process to aimlessly drift creates an environment in which malevolent elements thrive.
Read more:
- Lyra McKee's funeral will be 'celebration of her life' says partner
- MTV comply with PSNI request over documentary footage
- 'How dare they' - priest who anointed journalist Lyra McKee hits out at killers
- Lyra McKee's murder an attack on peace and democracy'
