Death of Peig King

Lifelong Republican Péig King of Tyrone and Dublin passed away this week. She held many senior positions in the republican movement and Cumann na mBan and is a former patron of Republican Sinn Féin. Her funeral took place with full republican honours in Glasnevin Cemetery on Friday. The following is a tribute by former RSF President Des Dalton.

It was with great sadness I learned today of the death of my friend, comrade and mentor Peig King of Dublin and Tyrone.

Peig was a Republican stalwart. She was born into a staunch Republican family. Her mother was among the Cumann na mBan members who handmade the first Easter Lillies in 1925. In 2016 Peig made replicas of those first Lillies to mark the centenary of the 1916 Rising.

As a young girl, Peig joined Clann na Gael and later Cumann na gCailíní. In 1947 Peig joined Cumann na mBan, where she was trained by 1916 veteran Aoife “Effie” Taaffe. Over the decades Peig held a variety of positions at all levels within the Republican Movement.

No job was too big or too small for her. With her beloved husband Paddy, their home was a source of shelter to Republicans from across Ireland in the years following the uprising of the nationalist people of the Six Counties against British rule in 1969.

In more recent years she was Patron of Republican Sinn Féin and a member of the Executive of Cumann na mBan. For me Peig was a true friend, always available with a listening ear and words of wise counsel. We will never see her like again.

I wish to extend my deepest sympathy to her husband Paddy; her sons Colum and Ciarán; daughter Fidelma; daughters-in-law Denise, Mairéad and Denise, grandchildren Katie, Gavin and Ruth. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam uasal.

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