Statement by President Michael D. Higgins on the death of Nell McCafferty
Date: Wed 21st Aug, 2024 | 12:42
“It is with great sorrow that so many people will have learnt of the death of Nell McCafferty.
Nell McCafferty was a pioneer in raising those searching questions which could be asked, but which had been buried, hidden or neglected. Indeed, this is one of the aspects which was most remarkable from the very beginning in her work.
For example, Nell knew that standing behind the rituals of courts and unfortunate defendants, there was always a complex story which she had a gifted empathy to understand. In her column, ‘In the Eyes of the Law’, she opened people’s eyes to the operation of the District Court and its interaction with those who found themselves before it.
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.
Across so many areas, including her work on the Kerry Babies case captured in her book ‘A Woman to Blame’, the Troubles, her own life experience and so many other areas beside, Nell’s writing remains a compelling and courageous record of those decades.
As a writer and activist, including as a co-founder of the Irish Women’s Liberation Movement, Nell McCafferty played a vital role and leaves a true legacy in fighting for feminism and women’s rights across the island.
Paying tribute to Nell on her 80th birthday earlier this year, I said that “those who have had Nell as a friend and an ally are very fortunate in their being given the gift of experiencing humanity in all its possibilities and vulnerabilities, and delivered as she did it with a sense of humour that paid tribute to the authenticity of her Derry upbringing.”
Sabina and myself were privileged to be friends of Nell and to have experienced her enduring strength, courage, warmth and humour. She will be deeply missed by us all.
May I express my deepest condolences to Nell’s family, colleagues and many friends.”