McKee Corner said she was aware of Sinn Féin’s “efforts to encourage dissident republican groups, including Saoradh, to move away from violence and engage with the political process” since 2019, and that this “encouragement has been unsuccessful to date”. In a statement, McKee Corner questioned “the timing of the publication of this letter (given that it is over two years old) and the links made to my murdered sister”, and added that those responsible for leaking it “should hang their heads in shame for using my beloved sister in this way”. However, Nichola McKee Corner, Lyra’s sister, called the leaking of the letter, at a divisive time for Sinn Féin’s electoral campaign, an exploitation of Lyra’s murder. It was an attempt to “work towards unity and changing the constitutional position, but only by consent, only by the public working together” according to Sinn Féin’s vice-president, Michelle O’Neill, as she confirmed Kearney had written a letter to Saoradh.