Kathleen Thompson was a strong family woman of ‘selfless generosity’

This was the message delivered by the mother-of-six’s daughter at a weekend event to mark the 50th anniversary of her death at the hands of the British Army.

Kathleen Thompson (47) was shot dead as she stood outside her home in Creggan on November 6, 1971.

Her body was found by her 12 year-old daughter, Minty, who told a commemoration event in the city that, half a century on, the family remained determined to “keep fighting” for justice.

Ms Thompson, speaking at an event at the Rath Mor Centre organised by human rights group, the Pat Finucance Centre, recalled her mother as a “strong, passionate woman, who instilled in her children a fundamental belief in equality and civil rights.”

She added: “She was also a devout Catholic and every morning she would get up at 6am, clean the house, her other pride and joy, and, after getting us children off to school, she would attend daily mass and communion.”

Ms Thompson added: “Our mother, Kate, was also quietly generous. She helped countless others without expecting anything in return. Even today, 50 years later, people share stories of her selfless generosity with me and my brothers and sisters.”

Ms Thompson said that, with the support of the Pat Finucane Centre, the family has spent “decades knocking on closed doors. We challenged anyone and everyone we could think of.”

She said the family was “quietly hopeful, but still nervous after years of disappointments” that a new inquest “will give us the answers we seek.”

She added: “It has been a slow, painful journey, but we hope that, whatever the verdict is, it brings us a sense of justice and closure that we have spent 50 years seeking.”

At an earlier anniversary Mass in St Mary’s Church, Creggan, Rev. Michael Canny said that, despite being born into a “tough world in which luxuries of any kind were few and far between and hard work for little recompense was the norm”, Kathleen Thompson (nee Doherty) “grew into a woman of inordinate generosity and selflessness, a woman who believed in sharing what she had with those in greater need, a woman whose helping hand was always outstretched.”

Father Canny said the mother of six had been “an innocent victim of Northern Ireland’s bitter conflict” and “her death left an open wound in the heart of her family, a wound which is still painful and raw even after fifty years. Her loss is still mourned deeply, not only by her beloved family but also by the community she served so faithfully.”