THE mother of hunger striker Kieran Doherty was a woman of "immense dignity", Sinn Féin has said following her death.
Margaret Doherty, from Andersonstown in west Belfast, passed away yesterday evening - just two days after the 38th anniversary of her son's death.
The mother-of-six was from a Protestant background but later converted to Catholicism.
Sinn Féin deputy leader Michelle O'Neill said she was saddened to learn of Mrs Doherty's passing.
"She was a woman of immense dignity, strength and courage," she said.
"My condolences to the Doherty family. They're in my thoughts and prayers."
Kieran Doherty’s hunger strike lasted 73 days. The IRA man died on August 2 1981.
Shortly before his death, he was elected TD for Cavan-Monaghan.
During the hunger strike, Mrs Doherty called on British government officials to speak to the strikers.
"I'm not a politician, I'm only a mother but I know if they would go in that would be it," she told RTÉ.
She said the British government did not want the strike to end.
"They just want the men to die one after the other," she said.
