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| Former SDLP South Down MP Eddie McGrady dies | Former SDLP South Down MP Eddie McGrady dies |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The former SDLP MP for South Down Eddie McGrady has died. | The former SDLP MP for South Down Eddie McGrady has died. |
| Mr McGrady, who was 78 and had been ill for some time, was an MP from 1987 until his retirement in 2010. He was also a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly between 1998 and 2003. | |
| SDLP leader Alasdair McDonnell said Mr McGrady's politics "were the politics of fair play, of social justice, reconciliation and general decency". | |
| He said there was "not a sectarian bone in his body". | |
| A former chartered accountant, Mr McGrady sat on Downpatrick Urban council in the 1960s and early 1970s, and then on Down District Council until 1989. | |
| He was also a member of the Northern Ireland assemblies in existence in the 1970s and 1980s. | |
| Mr McGrady gained national prominence on election night in 1987, when - at his fourth attempt - he defeated Enoch Powell, who had been Ulster Unionist MP for South Down since 1974. | |
| As an MP he was known as an opponent of the Sellafield nuclear plant and a defender of the Downe Hospital. | |
| Dr McDonnell said he was deeply saddened by his death. | |
| "Today, the SDLP has lost one of its founding pillars. County Down has lost a great champion and Ireland has lost a person of faith and integrity who enhanced public life in a political career that lasted almost half a century," he said. | |
| "As a founding member of the SDLP, Eddie helped to shape not only our party, but history, as he along with John Hume, Seamus Mallon and others helped to define the politics of an era and build the peace of our lifetime." | |
| Former SDLP leader Margaret Ritchie, who succeeded Mr McGrady as South Down MP, said: "Eddie was not only my mentor and colleague but a very dear friend. | |
| "Eddie was an inspiration to a generation of politicians and a true advocate for the community of South Down." | |
| Mr McGrady's wife of more than 20 years, Patricia, passed away in 2003. They are survived by their three children - Paula, Jerry and Conaill. |