Relatives of Lyra McKee and Senator Paddy Wilson touched to have their loved ones on new memorial quilt from SEFF

It is the seventh quilt created by the South East Fermanagh Foundation and features memorial patches for the loved ones of over 70 families.

Belfast journalist Lyra McKee, 29, made international headlines and rocked Northern Ireland when she was shot dead b ythe IRA while observing rioting in Londonderry's Creggan estate in April 2019.

Senator Wilson, a founding member of the SDLP, was brutally stabbed to death by the UDA in 1973, along with his friend Irene Andrews.

Lyra’s sister Nicola Corner told the News Letter that Lyra was close friends with Ann Travers, whose sister Mary was murdered by the IRA and who now works for SEFF.

When they were making the new memorial quilt, SEFF Director of Services Kenny Donaldson contacted Nichola through Ann to ask what they thought of Lyra being included.

"And I was just absolutely overwhelmed and blown away that they wanted to include her.”

"The quilt was very significant because it is really a kind of metaphor where the thread of violence runs through all of the stories included on them.

"But also that same thread of violence has created a connection between all the families represented - we're all connected through great and unexpected, tragic loss."

The symbols on Lyra's patch were a padded red heart, a symbol for the superhero Wonder Woman and a magnifying glass -symbolising her love of superhero movies and investiagtive journalism.

"She was a very big hearted person, and it was her heart that shone out, so in the quilt the heart is sitting out in 3D”.

Paddy Wilson’s niece Mairead Burke said it was so important for her 'Uncle Patsy' to be remembered.

"I do want to remember because he did a lot of community work in Belfast when he was a senator and a councillor," she said. "So I don't want him forgotten about. His death just decimated our family.

“It just changed our whole family. Never again did my father he go to funerals, weddings, baptisms or anywhere. Our holidays in Donegall just stopped and he bought guard dogs and put bolts and chains on the door.”

She said Paddy and her uncle Eddie used to cycle in their younger days and that he liked fishing and golf - the three symbols on his quilt.

"Those quilts are an absolutely wonderful way of paying tribute and remembering the victims of both loyalist and Republican terrorism," she said.

"They're not in your face, they are a nice, kind, softly approach. I was able to pick out different people that I remembered being killed.

“I am so glad they are on view in the cathedral for two more weeks. I just hope people go and have a look at them."

The seven memorial quilts to Troubles victims are on display in St Anne's Cathedral Belfast for two weeks.