Stephen Walker, a former BBC Northern Ireland political correspondent and author, has died aged 61.
Walker was born in England and educated in Northern Ireland. He joined BBC Northern Ireland in 1991, having worked with Radio Leeds over the previous three years.
During more than three decades at the BBC, Walker was an investigative reporter on the Spotlight investigative programme, winning awards for his work on the documentaries The Black Catch and The Life and Death of an IRA Quartermaster.
He held the positions of London correspondent and Northern Ireland political correspondent, covering the later stages of the northern conflict, the peace process leading up to the 1998 Belfast Agreement and Brexit.
He was an author of five books, including biographies of the now-deceased John Hume and David Trimble, respectively the former SDLP and Ulster Unionist Party leaders who played crucial roles in the Northern Ireland peace process.
An avid sports fan, his other works included Ireland’s Call: Irish Sporting Heroes who fell during the Great War.
Although he suffered from illness in recent years, Walker continued to work and to write.
He is survived by his wife Katrin, daughter Grace and sons Gabriel and Jack.
News of his death on Sunday morning came via a post on X by his close friend and former BBC NI colleague Mark Carruthers.
In that, Carruthers said Walker’s family had asked him “to let people know that Stephen passed away at home this morning surrounded by the people he loved and who loved him”.
The family said: “He was a wonderful husband, father, brother and son, a fine journalist and author, and the very best of friends. We are all heartbroken, but grateful for his life so well and fully lived.”