Journalist, author and feminist campaigner Nell McCafferty has died aged 80, her family has confirmed.
She died in the early hours of this morning at a Co Donegal nursing home.
Ms McCafferty was born in 1944 in Derry's Bogside and graduated from Queen's University in Belfast and then studied in France.
She became a journalist in her 20s and authored many books, including 'Nell', 'In the Eyes of the Law' and 'The Best of Nell'.
Ms McCafferty was a founding member of the Irish Women's Liberation Movement.
She became an outspoken advocate for women's rights, the poor and for people who suffered injustice.
She worked for several publications including the Irish Times, the Sunday Tribune and Hot Press and was a regular panellist on radio and television programmes.
She was prominent in campaigns and issues that received national and international attention including Bloody Sunday, the Kerry Babies cases and sex abuse scandals in the Catholic Church.
She received many awards, including an honorary doctorate of literature from University College Cork in 2016.
Ms McCafferty's wake will be held at her sister's home in Derry from today until Friday. Her requiem mass will take place on Friday afternoon at 12.30pm in St Columba's Church, Longtower.
A private cremation will take place afterwards in Lakelands Crematorium, Co Cavan.
President Micahel D Higgins led tributes to Ms McCafferty, saying had a "unique gift in stirring people's consciousness, and this made her advocacy formidable on behalf of those who had been excluded from society".
The Taoiseach described her as a "fierce, fearless and fiery" campaigner who "suffered no fools".
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Face and voice of Irish feminism
Witty, direct and impossible to ignore, Ms McCafferty was, for a time, the face and voice of Irish feminism.
One of six children who grew up in the nationalist bogside area of Derry, she first became involved in politics during the civil rights movement.
She then moved to Dublin where she worked first with the Irish Times and then as a freelance journalist.
Her work included ground-breaking reporting from the Dublin district courts as well as coverage of major national news stories.
Nell McCafferty was a founding member of the Irish Women's Liberation Movement, which held its first meeting in 1970.
She was also part of the group of women who travelled from Dublin to Belfast in May 1971 on the so-called "contraceptive train" to buy contraceptives in Belfast, defying Dublin customs by illegally bringing their contraceptives past the barrier at Connolly Station in a landmark moment.
She frequently appeared on radio and television and her contribution to the RTÉ show, Women Today, in 1979 was often dry, even witty, but her view of life was unflinching and her message serious.
Nell McCafferty was in a relationship with writer Nuala O'Faolain for over 15 years before they separated. Ms O'Faolain died in 2008.
Additional reporting Kate Egan
