A NORTH Belfast republican will be remembered as a "tireless worker" and a "ceaseless inspiration".

Chrissie Huddleston from the Newington area passed away on Monday.

North Belfast Sinn Féin MLA Gerry Kelly said Chrissie was a committed Irish republican  and will be sorely missed by all who knew her. 

"Chrissie Huddleston was a quiet, ordinary, working-class woman who might have passed you unnoticed in any street," he said.

"She was also an extraordinary woman who spent at least 50 years of her life as a republican activist serving the people of North  Belfast and working towards Irish reunification.

"She, and her first husband, Colm Mulgrew, first experienced political canvassing in the Labour Party in the late sixties which she described as ‘hilarious’ before they were turfed out for being ‘too socialist’.

"They joined Sinn Féin as the conflict intensified and she recalled meetings in various houses, and delivering the Republican News hidden under her coat, as Sinn Féin was an illegal organisation.

"Colm was murdered by loyalists on June 5, 1976 and Chrissie described the long period of grief that she endured. She summoned the strength to come through that dark period and returned to activism. 

"Later she fell in love with John Huddleston. They got married and had four children. Together they self-learned computer skills and set up the first data base for elections in Newington. 

"I met them in the 1998 Assembly elections. Chrissie became a true friend and comrade throughout the rest of her life. She faced more personal tragedy when John died in 2001.

"She will be sadly missed by her family and by many, many people in North Belfast and far beyond, whose lives she touched. 

"A woman, strength of our struggle. In life, a tireless worker. In death, a ceaseless inspiration."

Chrissie's remains will leave her home (3 The Glen, Limestone Road) this Saturday (March 18) at 9.15am for Mass in Holy Family Chapel at 9.30am. Burial afterwards in Carnmoney Cemetery.

Ar dheis láimh Dé go raibh a h-anam uasal.