A week on from the riots in Derry that took the life of a Belfast woman it is only right that serious reflection is now given to the increase in violence in Northern Ireland, 21 years on from a peace process that was meant to change all our lives.
Lyra McKee at 29-years-old, was the age of one of my own children. I’d never met her and I’m not going to eulogise her, there are plenty of people who did know her who have done that over the last week.
My son has little if any recollection of the Troubles that impacted my own formative years.
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My daughters born after that have no memory of conflict at all, and their lives are better for it.
As the security correspondent of this paper I have spent 20 years reporting on the various twists and turns of our volatile past and precarious present.
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We are not about to lurch back into all out conflict. It’s important to say that as the commentary after any tragedy can become at times hysterical.
When violence erupted on the streets in 1969, no one could have or would have predicted that it would last for 30 more years and claim the lives of over 3,600 people.
Had it been known more effort would have been made to find a solution before living in a war zone became such a normal part of many of our childhoods.
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We now have that wonderful gift of hindsight, we can see familiar patterns emerging and so there is no excuse not to deal with them, this time in a way that will have meaningful impact going forward.
It was said before this tragedy happened that there is a problem in the north west of this island that is growing in terms of numbers and risk it causes to the peace process, politics in general, but much more importantly the lives of the good people of Derry.
And first we must ask, why Derry? That beautiful historic city that those of us who don’t live there love to visit and have only good memories of.
At the end of any war/conflict, call it what you will, there needs to be serious thought given to how to rebuild not just structurally but also the minds and lives of people who have survived.
The Patten reforms were intended to change policing in a such a radical way that it would become acceptable to all, in as much as any police force ever can be.
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Those who were not in favour of the peace process, who were not ready to give up their war, knew that policing was a big part of the nationalist and republican mindset.
Attacks on Catholic police officers and more recently their families, has made that an impossible career choice for many young nationalists who not willing to dramatically change their lifestyle for a job.
In Derry there is little in the way of normalised policing, the dissident threat means that it remains on a security footing, with young people seeing officers dressed in riot clothes travelling in armoured vehicles.
That’s not peace time policing.
However, it is a political and not a policing failing that has brought us to this place.
Too much investment was Belfast centred, in ten years of Stormont there was no little thought given to the long-term future of places like Derry and Strabane.
I’ve argued and debated with many people over the last week about what this means for the younger generation and how it leaves them susceptible to recruitment by older, sinister forces.
If you look at any area where young people are dragged into violent situations, be it knife crime in London or Islamic radicalisation in northern English cities, it is no coincidence that the areas they come from are economically deprived. The areas where young people have little in the way of options, those who thrive educationally tend to leave, go elsewhere.
Those without that opportunity stay and can be dragged into violence, because the status and power that comes with membership of any organisation is more attractive when there are few other options.
The person who fired the fatal shot last Thursday night was, as seen by footage from the scene, a very young man.
The person seen picking up the bullet casings afterwards appears even younger still.
The killing has been claimed by the group known as the New IRA, and so those very young men, born more than likely after the ceasefires, were fully signed up members of that group.
If that doesn’t concern you then it should. There is an opportunity to intervene in Derry, to give hope and services to those young people, to direct them into positive lines of training to provide jobs and investment.
To educate them about the realities of violence and not the romanticised nonsense being peddled by the older middle-aged conflict junkies who recruited them.
If we ignore what is happening in Derry having seen what might result if it is allowed to flourish then we’ve no one to blame but ourselves.
