You can't have missed the news that Gerry Fitt passed away in England today at a relatives home, due to a long-running hear condition. I don't know much about him because his heyday was before my time, but it seems he was much more reasonable and rational than most politicians in Northern Ireland at the minute, of either colour.

Gerry Fitt (latterly Lord Fitt) was John Hume's predecessor as leader of the SDLP which he co-founded. This morning that was probably as much as I knew about the man, but having heard the stories and the reflections of his peers on his life, it seems that Ulster has suffered a real loss today.

Follow up:

Lord Fitt was a man the like of whom is rarely seen today in Northern Ireland's political life. He was a nationalist, but one who roundly condemned IRA violence and opposed the hunger strikes, both of which would hurt his reputation among republicans and ended up costing him his West Belfast seat to the shameless upstart that was Gerry Adams.

Gerry Fitt was himself a victim of Republican violence and had to defend himself with a gun when a republican mob attacked his home. He spoke out against the Anglo-Irish agreement because local representatives weren't consulted. He even ended up accepting a Lordship and taking his seat in the House of Lords at Westminster after being forced to live in exile in London due to the threat of the IRA.

This man was no typical nationalist, and certainly nothing like the cretins who now hold the majority of nationalist seats at Westminster. He seems to have truly wanted to build a society that would bring together Northern Ireland's catholics and protestants. He's quoted as saying he felt closer to a Shankill Road protestant than a "26-county" (Republic of Ireland) catholic. If it hadn't been for the collapse of Sunningdale, who knows how far he and his colleagues may have gone towards meeting that objective? Maybe we wouldn't have had the las 20 years of IRA violence and crime and Northern Ireland could be a better place to live, but we'll never know.

Lord Fitt: thanks for trying.

Update
I encourage all to read the Times obituary to Lord Fitt, which I discovered thanks to JoBlog. Northern Ireland needs more Gerry Fitts.