Terry Prone: Nell McCafferty exposed the worst trailing wires of old Ireland

Nell McCafferty was kind and generous, a genius with words, an observer of the unseen. That’s how she should be remembered, says Terry Prone 

Nell McCafferty cared about poor, unheard women and was permanently enraged on their behalf. Picture: Eamonn Farrell/RollingNews.ie

A few weeks after Gay Byrne’s death in 2019, RTÉ did a special Late Late Show in tribute to him. All the great and good. All the famous. All egging to put in their four pence-worth. 

And squashed down in a corner on the left, Nell McCafferty being Nell McCafferty. She was at a low boil from the off, furious about something or someone. The younger people close to her, unclear as to who, precisely, this curly-headed angry old lady was, or why she was there, tried to pretend they didn’t hear her heckling.