The Bobby Sands Trust has extended sympathy to the family of the Welsh peer who as an MP moved the writ for the by-election that saw Owen Carron elected to Westminster.
Dafydd Elis-Thomas, the former leader of Plaid Cymru, died on February 7, aged 78.
He served as an MP from 1974-1992 and was presiding officer of the National Assembly for Wales from the office’s inception in 1999 to 2011.
Mr Elis-Thomas was a also member of the House of Lords and a privy counsellor.
Following IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands' election to Westminster in April 1981 the then British prime minister Margaret Thatcher introduced legislation barring prisoners from contesting subsequent elections.
Some two months after Sands' death in May 1981, Mr Elis-Thomas was the only MP prepared to move the writ for a second by-election.
He was criticised by the then SDLP leader Gerry Fitt who called on the speaker to reject the motion on a point of order. One Labour MP opposed the motion then withdrew his objection and the motion was passed.
Mr Carron, an Anti-H-Block candidate, topped the poll in the August 1981 election, some 2,230 votes ahead of Ulster Unionist Ken Maginnis.
Bobby Sands Trust secretary Danny Morrison said Mr Elis-Thomas was “not only a tireless worker and passionate activist for his own people in Wales but his intervention would help change the course of Irish history”.
On behalf of the trust, he extended sympathy to the late peer’s family.