Nell McCafferty’s family ‘humbled and comforted’ by tributes upon her death

Nell McCafferty was a prominent voice on women’s rights issues across the island of Ireland. Picture: Eamonn Farrell/RollingNews.ie

The family of renowned author, journalist and feminist activist Nell McCafferty have said they are “humbled and comforted” by the tributes following her death.

The celebrated writer, 80, died in the early hours of Wednesday at a nursing home in Fahan, Co Donegal following a long illness.

The former Irish Times journalist, originally from Derry, was a prominent voice on women’s rights issues across the island of Ireland and in 1970 co-founded the Irish Women’s Liberation Movement (IWLM).

Considered a journalistic trailblazer and fearless social commentator, McCafferty, who was raised in Derry’s Bogside area, authored several books and also wrote for publications including the Sunday Tribune and Hot Press.

Campaigning for the legalisation of contraceptives in Ireland in the 1970s, she famously took part in an event known as the Contraceptive Train in 1971 when members of the IWLM travelled across the border to Belfast, bought a range of contraceptive products and took them to Dublin, where they staged a protest at the city’s Connolly station.

McCafferty had previously been in a long term relationship with fellow author Nuala O’Faolain, who died in 2008.

Journalist Nell McCafferty. Picture: Julien Behal/PA

A statement from McCafferty’s family to the PA news agency concluded with ‘Goodnight Sisters’ — the phrase she used to sign off at the end of TV appearances and also the title of two volumes of her writings.

“There aren’t words to convey the emotion that we feel at the loss of Our Nell,” said the family.

“We are humbled and comforted by the outpouring of love, respect and admiration on this rainy August day.

“We once again rely on the woman herself to express the depth of our feelings in just two words: Goodnight Sisters.”

President Michael D Higgins led the tributes, describing McCafferty as a writer who had “a unique gift in stirring people’s consciousness” and a “fierce drive to tackle repression, poverty and authoritarianism”.

Mr Higgins said he and his wife Sabina were “privileged” to be friends with her and said she will be “deeply missed by us all”.

“Nell McCafferty was a pioneer in raising those searching questions which could be asked, but which had been buried, hidden or neglected,” Mr Higgins said.

“Indeed, this is one of the aspects which was most remarkable from the very beginning in her work.”

He added: “Nell had a unique gift in stirring people’s consciousness, and this made her advocacy formidable on behalf of those who had been excluded from society.

“A defining feature across Nell’s life was such a fierce drive to tackle repression, poverty and authoritarianism wherever she saw it.”

McCafferty’s funeral will take place on Friday in her native Derry.

A requiem mass will be held at 12.30pm at St Columba’s Church, Long Tower in the city, followed by a private cremation in Co Cavan.