A few years later, Yates was filming in Northern Ireland with
Saoradh, a far-left republican group with ties to the New IRA, for his MTV series. Just hours after the interview, the group was involved in riots in which the journalist
Lyra McKee was shot and killed. Some have claimed Saoradh amped up their usual Easter shenanigans to make a bigger splash for the TV crew. One community organiser told the
Guardian, “They staged the whole thing for him. It was all staged, all choreographed.”
Yates is more reticent on this issue, citing an ongoing police investigation and McKee’s grieving family, but does say that he “absolutely” feels comfortable with his actions and those of the crew, and points to numerous statements from the Police Service of Northern Ireland that have said there is “no evidence” to suggest their presence affected events on the ground.
