OSCAR-winning filmmaker Oorlagh George has paid tribute to her mother's "spirit and passion" following her death at the weekend.
Belfast-born Margaret George (née Higgins), widely known as Rita, died on Friday at the Ulster Hospital in Dundonald, aged 70.
She was the wife of acclaimed filmmaker and screen writer Terry George, whose work includes Hotel Rwanda and In the Name of the Father.
The couple moved to New York with daughter Oorlagh in 1981, where their son Seamus was born.
In the United States, she continued her life-long activism, working as an advocate for women's rights and on behalf of immigrants and refugees.
She also penned an advice column for the Irish Echo and was a founding member of the Bainbridge Women's Group.
Mrs George had a respiratory condition and underwent a lung transplant in 2014.
She lived in Los Angeles but made regular trips back to the north, staying at the family's home at Coney Island in Co Down.
Her daughter Oorlagh, who alongside her father won an Academy Award in 2012 for their short film The Shore, described her mother as a " truly awesome woman".
"She had incredible energy – she would form a community wherever she went," she said.
"She was a champion of rights for refugees, women and immigrants, campaigning with great spirit and passion."
Rita George is survived by husband Terry and children Oorlagh and Seamus. Her funeral will take place on Thursday at St Peter's Cathedral in Belfast at 12.30pm.
