DUP leader Arlene Foster was given a round of applause when she arrived for a vigil in Derry’s Creggan organised to commemorate murdered journalist, Lyra McKee.
Hundreds of people gathered close to the spot where Ms McKee fell after she was fatally wounded during rioting in Derry on Thursday night.
Ms McKee’s partner, Sara Canning told the vigil that her “hopes and dreams and all of her amazing potential” had been snuffed out by the gunman who claimed her life.
The Derry woman said: “Victims and LGBTQI community are left without a tireless advocate and activist and it has left me without the love of my life, the woman I was planning to grow old with.”
Ms Canning said her partner’s death should not be in vain. She said her life was a “shining light” in everyone else’s life.
In an unprecedented move, DUP leader, Arlene Foster, accompanied by East Derry MP Gregory Campbell and Derry assembly member Gary Middleton, attended the Creggan vigil.
Mrs Foster was joined by Alliance leader, Naomi Long, SDLP leader, Colum Eastwood, Sinn Féin president, Mary Lou McDonald and Ulster Unionist representative, Mary Hamilton.
The DUP leader told the vigil that while she had visited Derry many times it was the first time, she had ever been to Creggan.
"I came to stand in solidarity with all of the people who are here today. I want to say your pain is my pain. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a Catholic or a Protestant; whether you identify as Irish or British, when people come out with guns to shoot people from their own community then we have to say enough is enough,” she said.
Mrs Foster thanked the people of Creggan for their welcome.
SDLP leader, Mr Eastwood said the enemies of the people were not the police officers who drove through a burning barricade in their effort to get Ms McKee to hospital, trying to save her life. He said it was the men who fired the gun.
Sinn Féin president, Ms McDonald carried a rainbow flag in memory of the murder victim. She described Ms McKee’s murder as a “gross” act against the people of Derry and the people of Ireland.
Naomi Long, Alliance Party leader, said she would always support those who faced down attacks on the community.
A second vigil, organised by the National Union of Journalists, was also held last night along with a vigil at Belfast city hall.
