Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald said his contribution to Irish republicanism “will endure for generations to come”, while former Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams said he was “a stalwart in the struggle for Irish freedom for over 50 years”.
Mr Howell, aged in his late 70s and from west Belfast, was a strategist and negotiator for Sinn Fein and believed to be a close adviser to Mr Adams.
He took part in the Good Friday Agreement negotiations and talks on New Decade/New Approach powersharing deal in 2020.
He also served as Sinn Fein’s director of foreign affairs during the Troubles and was a member of the party’s ard comhairle (national executive).
During the so-called cash for ash inquiry, it emerged that Sinn Fein’s finance minister at Stormont, Mairtin O Muilleoir, had sought approval from Mr Howell to sign off on a business plan for the Renewable Heat Incentive scheme.
This was used to criticise Sinn Fein as a party ultimately controlled by “shadowy” figures.
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In a statement, Mr Adams paid tribute to his “good friend” Ted Howell and his late wife Eileen Duffy as “central figures in the Irish struggle”.
“He had a steadfast commitment to anti sectarianism and principled democratic republican values,” Mr Adams said.
“He was part of the core group which managed Sinn Fein’s strategy in the early 1980s, our engagement with the SDLP in 1988 and the emergence of our peace strategy.”
He said Mr Howell was also involved in peace negotiations in the Basque country, had travelled with Mr Adams to the Middle East and was “heavily invested” in the Palestinian struggle.
“Despite ill health in more recent years he has been part of the party’s Uniting Ireland Committee working to advance that objective,” Mr Adams said.
“Ted brought a perceptive and sharp mind to republican politics and to the countless projects he was involved with. His contribution to modern republicanism is enormous.
“He was also a very decent and generous person, funny and modest. Very sociable and good company. A decent cook and a knowledgeable gardener.
“His death is a great personal loss to me and to all of us who had the honour and pleasure to know him.”
Sinn Fein president and Dublin Central TD Mary Lou McDonald paid tribute to Mr Howell as a “giant of politics”.
“He was always about the bigger picture, always about the future, always about the Irish nation.
“Today, we have lost a giant of politics and a dear friend. A radical thinker, a change maker, the epitome of selfless activism. An ordinary man from West Belfast who did the extraordinary. Ted Howell made a difference.
“My condolences to his heartbroken sons, his family and his wide circle of friends.
“We continue to work for the goal to which he dedicated his life – a united Ireland of equality, fairness and social and economic justice.”
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First Minister and Sinn Fein vice president Michelle O’Neill paid tribute to Mr Howell as a “life-long republican activist” and “a towering intellect”.
She said he was the chairman of Sinn Fein’s negotiating team and was “intimately” involved in all political negotiations, from the Hume/Adams talks until the New Decade/New Approach deal in 2020.
“His contribution to the building of a conflict resolution process in Ireland was largely unseen but was one of the firm building blocks that has delivered the transformation of our society and the peace and progress we see all around us today,” Ms O’Neill said.
“Ted was a leading light in the development of the Sinn Fein peace strategy, authoring key policy papers in the internal debates that resulted in the Irish peace process.
“He was a skilled diplomat, interacting as an equal with representatives of the two governments, US administrations and others.”