Funeral of journalist and campaigner takes place

admin November 21, 2023

Funeral of journalist and campaigner takes place

International
August 23, 2024
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The funeral of Nell McCafferty takes place at St Columba’s church in her native of Derry. Included in picture is her sister Carmel.

PA Funeral procession — The funeral of Nell McCafferty takes place at St Columba’s church in her native of Derry. Included in picture is her sister Carmel.

Mourners at the funeral of journalist and feminist campaigner Nell McCafferty have been told she was “unique and bold”.

Ms McCafferty, who was 80, died peacefully at her nursing home in Fahan, County Donegal, on Wednesday.

Her funeral took place on Friday at St Columba’s Church in the Long Tower area of Londonderry.

Ms McCafferty was a founding member of the Irish Woman’s Liberation Movement and wrote for the Irish Times among other publications.

Ms McCafferty was described as a “towering figure in Irish journalism”

PA Media Nell McCafferty walking and talking with with another woman, her hand on a metal barrier — Ms McCafferty was described as a “towering figure in Irish journalism”

Amongst those at the funeral were representatives of Irish President Michael D Higgins, and Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Simon Harris.

Northern Ireland’s First Minister Michelle O’Neill, veteran civil rights leader Bernadette McAliskey and fellow activist Eamonn McCann, a lifelong friend of Ms McCafferty’s, were among the mourners.

Speaking at the funeral, Eamonn McCann said Nell McCafferty had changed Ireland and changed it for the better.

He said that Bloody Sunday on 30 January 1972 in Derry had had a lasting effect on Nell McCafferty, on how she viewed politics, on how she thought of her city’s people and its marches.

A number of mourners attended the requiem Mass on Friday

PA Media The coffin carrying Nell McCafferty is carried into St. Columba's Church, Longtower, Derry, for the funeral of the journalist and feminist activist — A number of mourners attended the requiem Mass on Friday

As her coffin was carried out of the church at the end of the mass, mourners applauded her once more, some waved LGBT+ rainbow flags.

Ms MCafferty’s body was taken for a private cremation in County Cavan following the mass.

First Minister Michelle O’Neill was among those at the service on Friday

First Minister Michelle O'Neill enters the church in Derry for the funeral of Nell McCafferty — First Minister Michelle O’Neill was among those at the service on Friday

Born in Derry’s Bogside, Ms McCafferty campaigned for the legalisation of contraception in Ireland, including staging a protest where she and other women brought contraceptives over the border from Northern Ireland by train from Belfast to Dublin.

She was the author of several books, including a A Woman to Blame, about the Kerry babies case and The Armagh Women, about a hunger strike by female republican prisoners in Armagh jail in 1980.

Following her death, Mr Higgins led a host of tributes.

He said she had been “a pioneer in raising those searching questions which could be asked, but which had been buried, hidden or neglected”.

A book of condolence has been opened at Derry’s Guildhall.

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