He is survived by his wife and five children, among them Senator Emer Currie.
Civil rights activist and former politician Austin Currie has died.
The SDLP cofounder and former Fine Gael TD for Dublin West passed away aged 82.
Currie was an active member of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association, being elected to the Northern Ireland Executive at 24.
In June of 1968, he took part in the occupation of a house in Tyrone over discrimination from the council. Following this, he acted as one of the organisers of the first civil rights marches in Northern Ireland, along with Con and Patricia McCloskey.
The march in Tyrone predated a similar march in Derry on 5 October 1968, which many consider to be the start of the Troubles.
In 1970, he was a founding member of the SDLP, along with Gerry Fitt and John Hume.
He took part in a two day hunger strike outside of 10 Downing Street along with Hume, Bernadette Devlin McAliskey, and Paddy O’Hanlon.
He served as Minister for Housing, Local Government and Planning in the Northern Ireland Executive in 1974, and as party whip for the SDLP in the same year.
Currie moved south in 1989, and won the Dublin West seat for Fine Gael in the 1989 General Election.
He was put forward by the party as a candidate for the presidential election of 1990, where he came third to Brian Lenihan and Mary Robinson.
In 1994, he was chosen to be Minister of State for Justice, which he acted as until 1997.
Currie retired from politics in 2002 following the loss of his seat in Dublin West, and went on to write a book about his experiences, All Hell Will Break Loose, in 2004.
He is survived by his wife Annita, and their five children, among them current Senator Emer Currie.
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