FORMER Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams has paid tribute to key Sinn Féin strategist and friend Ted Howell who died on Friday.

Mr Adams said the West Belfast man who was instrumental in the development of the party from the 1980s was "a stalwart in the struggle for Irish freedom for over 50 years".

"He and his late wife Eileen Duffy were, with others, central figures in the Irish struggle," Mr Adams added. 

“During his many years of activism Ted played a leadership role in the evolution of republican politics. He had a steadfast commitment to anti-sectarianism and principled democratic republican values. He was part of the core group which managed Sinn Féin’s strategy in the early 1980s, our engagement with the SDLP in 1988 and the emergence of our peace strategy.

“Ted was central to the publication of two key policy documents ‘Scenario for Peace’ in 1987 and the ‘Towards a Lasting Peace in Ireland’ in 1992 – and central to all of the engagements with the Irish, British and US governments in the decades that followed. He was a key part of our negotiating team. 

“Ted was also deeply involved in Sinn Féin’s international outreach and played an important role in the peace negotiations in the Basque country. He also travelled with me to the Middle East and he was heavily invested in the Palestinian struggle and for peace in the Middle East." 

The former West Belfast MP said that despite ill-health in recent years Ted Howell was part of Sinn Féin's Uniting Ireland Committee "working to advance that objective".

“Ted brought a perceptive and sharp mind to republican politics and to the countless projects he was involved with. His contribution to modern republicanism is enormous. 

“He was also a very decent and generous person, funny, and modest. Very sociable and good company. A decent cook and a knowledgeable gardener. His death is a great personal loss to me and to all of us who had the honour and pleasure to know him. 

“To his sons Eamonn and his wife Nora and Proinsias and his wife Karen, his grandchildren and their wider family and friends, including his sisters Anne and Margaret I want to offer on my own behalf and that of Colette and my family our deepest condolences and solidarity. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.” 

First Minister Michelle O'Neill said Ted Howell "performed his central and critically important roles quietly, with humility and never sought public attention or recognition".

"He was a skilled diplomat, interacting as an equal with representatives of the two governments, US administrations and others," said the Sinn Fein vice-president. "As longtime Chair of the Sinn Féin negotiating team he was intimately involved in every political negotiation from the Hume/Adams talks through the Good Friday Agreement to the New Decade/New Approach deal in 2020.

“A radical thinker and avowed internationalist, Ted was a voracious reader and student of international politics, always determined to learn from the struggles of other peoples and always willing to share the Irish republican experience with others struggling for freedom, justice and peace across the world."

Speaking of Ted Howell, Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald said: "Today, we have lost a giant of politics and a dear friend. A radical thinker, a change maker, the epitome of selfless activism. An ordinary man from West Belfast who did the extraordinary. Ted Howell made a difference."