John Kelly, former IRA leader, and a central figure in the 1970 Arms Crisis and later disaffected Sinn Féin member, has died after a long illness.
Mr Kelly, aged 71, who served as a Sinn Féin Mid-Ulster Assembly member in the first Assembly but was subsequently deselected in circumstances that were never properly explained, died on Wednesday night. He had battled cancer in recent years.
Originally from north Belfast, he lived in Dublin for a long period, finally settling with his wife Philomena in Maghera in Co Derry.
He was an "old guard republican" and a firm supporter of the peace process, regularly making the point that Sinn Féin gains were "made because of the IRA peace, not because of the IRA war".
While serving as an Assembly member, he felt that certain officials were working to isolate him and that some journalists were briefed that he was rather too unconventional a figure, whose opinions were not those of the leadership and should not be trusted.
Even after he resigned from Sinn Féin in protest at what he said was the "deceit and the philosophy of creative ambiguity" of the leadership, he maintained his support for the peace process.
While maintaining his republicanism, he could also be candid about the IRA, conceding that elements within the organisation were motivated by sectarianism as well as by nationalism.
Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness yesterday acknowledged the differences Mr Kelly had with the leadership but said he was "genuinely saddened" at his death.
SDLP leader Mark Durkan remarked that whatever political differences they had they could enjoy useful and insightful conversations.
Mr Kelly joined the IRA in the early 1950s, and participated in the Border campaign - albeit briefly. He was involved in action in 1956 when the campaign started but was arrested at Christmas that year. He served seven years in Crumlin Road jail, Belfast, and was released at about the end of the campaign in 1963.
He was involved in the civil rights movements in the mid- to late-1960s. He ended up as a Provisional IRA leader at the end of that decade after he was requested by Catholics under virtual siege in parts of Belfast to do something to protect the nationalist communities.
This in turn resulted in him ending up in the dock with Charles Haughey, Neil Blaney and Army intelligence officer Captain James Kelly, in the 1970 Arms Trial on arms importation charges.
He was eventually acquitted, although he served six months in prison in the Republic in 1973 for IRA membership.
He insisted that despite the denials that the then taoiseach Jack Lynch and other senior figures in the 1970 Fianna Fáil government knew of the plan to import arms. He said he and other members of the "citizens' defence groups" had meetings with government ministers, after which the go-ahead was given for him, acting mainly with Capt Kelly, to buy arms.
"These discussions were all about guns. The whole thing was government-sponsored, government-backed and government-related."
In conversation he provided colourful accounts of that period, of "running around" London, Europe and the US - on at least one occasion with Jock Haughey, Charles Haughey's brother - trying to procure arms, of being trailed by shadowy figures, of meeting the nucleus of what was later to become Noraid in the United States.
Of the death, injury and destruction of the Troubles, Mr Kelly said: "Yes, it was a terrible period. But you can't turn the clock back. The Irish government did not create the Provisional IRA. What happened was as inevitable as the changing seasons."
