personal loss during this time, with 17 members of her immediate family members dying during the sectarian violence. In May 1987, her youngest son, Gary who was 17, was shot dead by loyalist paramilitaries in the family home. At the time of the attack, she was meeting women in the WIDIC offices, and heard the gunfire and screams from her home. Despite this, she continued her community work, receiving a number of awards including the Irish Pensioner of the Year in 1991, an MBE in 1992, and an honorary doctorate from Queen's University Belfast in 1995. During the visit of US president Bill Clinton to Ireland in 1995, McCartan received Hillary Clinton at the Lamplighter Café in November 1995. Hillary Clinton later recalled that McCartan "gave me an old battered aluminium teapot - which kept the tea very warm, which is what I first noticed about it - that I took with me to the White House where I used it every single day in the second floor private kitchen." McCartan died on 8 January 1996 in hospital, and is buried at Milltown cemetery, Belfast. The University of Ulster established a professorial chair in her honour, and the inaugural Joyce McCartan lecture in October 1997 was given by Hillary Clinton. References 1929 births 1996 deaths People from County Down Women activists from Northern Ireland People of The Troubles (Northern Ireland) Members of the Order of the British Empire