John Fee: John Fee, who has died aged 43, was a former SDLP Assemblyman and member of Newry and Mourne Council and former Westminster assistant to Seamus Mallon. He died after a short illness at his home in Crossmaglen in south Armagh.
His death leaves a void which his party will not find easy to fill. His political life was marked by a rare level of activism matched only by his steadfast opposition to paramilitarism.
Throughout his political career, he remained loyal to his Crossmaglen community, always denying what he saw as the slur that this part of south Co Armagh was "bandit country".
He spoke against violence, intolerance and injustice from whatever quarter, whether from republicans, loyalists or the state itself.
In 2002 he boycotted a visit to the area by the then Conservative spokesman on Northern Ireland, Quentin Davis, who had claimed the right to visit any part of the UK. John saw the proposed trip to Crossmaglen as something akin to "John Wayne arriving to clean up Dodge City".
"Unless there is a complete, public retraction and apology and the damage is very comprehensively repaired then there's no way we can lend our endorsement to this sort of visit," he said. The defence, like the language he used, was typical of his spirit.
He was strongly critical of the high number of helicopter flights by the British army in the area, particularly in the years following the paramilitary ceasefires. Such activity in south Armagh was "scandalously high", he said, adding: "Any increase in helicopter activity will antagonise people on the ground enormously."
The following year, as he watched demolition work get under way on one of the British army's most prominent Border observation towers just outside Newry, he claimed: "Let me be very clear about Cloghogue, it should never, ever have been there. It never really had any real security function. It was built to be highly visible in physical terms and in political terms."
He was fully supportive of his party's endorsement of the new policing dispensation and the formation of the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
Despite representing a nationalist constituency which held long-established suspicions of the police, he said he would walk the streets of the area to advocate the new service, "only when and if I believe it will work for my community".
On the occasion of the first anniversary of the SDLP's decision to back the police service, he accused Sinn Féin of searching for political cover to do precisely the same thing.
He came to wider prominence as Westminster assistant to Newry and Armagh MP Seamus Mallon who was also SDLP deputy leader and as a member of the Stormont Assembly after 1998.
Mr Mallon described John as "a guy of remarkable ability" who had "an almost unique ability to make decisions, to make assessments, to decide what was real and what was unreal".
He added: "He was a person of great integrity and stood up for his beliefs with a courage that was sometimes frightening - frightening in the sense that he would never make any compromise in the things that he believed in, especially his non violence, his love of peace, and his deep love for humanity.
His criticisms of paramilitary violence were without fear and in March 1994, he paid a price for that opposition. After speaking against IRA violence, he was severely beaten near his home by a gang who attacked him under cover of darkness.
Referring to the long-term effects of the attack, Mr Mallon claimed his colleague "suffered greatly for it".
Remembering John's admiration for his uncle, Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich, Mr Mallon added: "The mettle of Tomás Ó Fiaich, the cardinal, was shared by John and shared by most people down here - that was a belief non-violence, of a republicanism which was built on agreement not pressure, which recognises the principle of consent at all times and which has respect for people of the other tradition and John epitomised that and he epitomised that in his work as a councillor, as an MLA and as a member of the community in Crossmaglen."
John Fee is survived by his wife, Collette; his mother, Deirdre; and brothers and sisters Pat, Tom, Áinin, Sheila, Eithne, Blaithín and Orla.
John Fee: born December 7th, 1963; died November 11th, 2007