AN investigation is underway in the United States following the death of Saoirse Kennedy Hill, the daughter of the Guildford Four's Paul Hill and Courtney Kennedy.
Emergency services were called to the Kennedy residence in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts on Thursday. The 22 year old was pronounced dead at Cape Cod Hospital.
Ms Kennedy Hill, who was the grand-daughter of former US presidential candidate, Robert F Kennedy, is believed she may have suffered a suspected drug overdose.
Her father Paul Hill was one of the Guildford Four, who along with Gerry Conlon, Carole Richardson and Paddy Armstrong, were wrongly convicted of the IRA bombing of two pubs in Guildford in 1974, in which four British soldiers and a civilian were killed and 65 others injured.
The group were each handed life sentences however they were released from prison on 1989 when their convictions were quashed.
Following his release, Paul Hill married Ms Kennedy - the fifth child of Robert and Ethel Kennedy - in 1993 and the couple welcomed their only child, daughter Saoirse, in 1997.
The family lived in Ireland from 2002 until 2006, when they legally separated. It is understood that Paul Hill is currently living in Washington DC.
The 22-year-old was a communications major at Boston College, according to the New York Times, and had suffered from depression.
It was yesterday reported that she had previously revealed her struggle with depression and mental illness in an article for her school paper in 2016.
"My depression took root in the beginning of my middle school years and will be with me for the rest of my life," she wrote.
She had revealed that she was sexually assaulted by a friend during her junior year and attempted to take her own life.
On returning to school after treatment, she said in the article, which she wrote in her senior year, that she felt unsettled and lonely because only a few people on campus knew about her illness.
In a statement following her death, her family said their hearts had been "shattered by the loss of our beloved Saoirse".
"Her life was filled with hope, promise and love. She cared deeply about her friends and family, especially her mother Courtney, her father Paul, her stepmother Stephanie, and her grandmother Ethel, who said, 'The world is a little less beautiful today.
"She lit up our lives with her love, her peals of laughter and her generous spirit. Saoirse was passionately moved by the causes of human rights and women's empowerment and found great joy in volunteer work, working alongside indigenous communities to build schools in Mexico. We will love her and miss her forever".
