Former Northern Irish leader dies

Crusading Northern Irish political leader Gerry Fitt, a respected and well-known figure who helped bring the province's troubles to world attention in the 1960s and 1970s, died yesterday after a long illness.

The 79-year-old socialist, a leading member of Northern Ireland's Catholic civil rights movement in the 1960s, had been in declining health for several months.

Tributes poured in for the man who represented the West Belfast constituency in Britain's House of Commons for 17 years and was one of the founders of the province's Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP).

Britain's Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain praised the dedicated life-long socialist who lost his Westminster seat to Gerry Adams, leader of the Irish Republican Army's political ally Sinn Fein, in 1983.

"Gerry Fitt was a courageous politician who fought against injustice in all its forms and demonstrated unrelenting opposition to violence from whatever source," Mr Hain said.

Mr Fitt was wounded in October 1968 when Northern Ireland police clashed with civil rights marchers in the province's second city of Londonderry.

In 1974 he became deputy chief executive of a short-lived power-sharing administration of pro-British Protestants and pro-Irish Catholics that lasted just five months.

A fearless critic of Irish Republican Army guerilla violence in the province, Mr Fitt's home was attacked by republican sympathisers in 1976.