A mural commissioned in memory of the writer and feminist campaigner Nell McCafferty was officially unveiled in Derry this afternoon.
Nell McCafferty, who died at the age of 80 in August last year, was an outspoken advocate for women’s rights, the poor and for people who suffered injustice.
The new mural is located near the Free Derry Corner in the Bogside area of Derry, where Ms McCafferty grew up, and was completed by Peaball Street Art Collective.
It was due unveiled today as part of events marking International Women’s Day.
The mural depicts Ms McCafferty alongside the words ‘Goodnight Sisters’, the phrase she used to sign off at the end of television appearances and also the title of two volumes of her writings.
Shá Gillespie, a close friend of McCafferty, said she wanted to honour her contribution to Irish life for some time.
“Every time I come through the Bogside, even before Nell died, I always thought that Nell McCafferty needs to be on these walls,” Ms Gillespie said.
“She’s such an individual, a famous Bogside woman, and she did so much for women in Ireland.
“Nell McCafferty, to me, was a woman who was fearless, and she was an icon. She spoke out for marginalised people.
“She spoke up for women who probably didn’t have a voice back in the early seventies when it was really difficult for women to speak. And I think that’s just who Nell is.
“She was just fierce; that’s how I would describe her.”
Ms McCafferty first became involved in politics during the civil rights movement.
She then moved to Dublin where she worked first with the Irish Times and then as a freelance journalist writing a weekly column in the now defunct Sunday News newspaper.
Ms McCafferty was a founding member of the Irish Women’s Liberation Movement and authored many books, including ‘Nell’, ‘In the Eyes of the Law’ and ‘The Best of Nell’.
She was seen by many as the face and voice of Irish feminism for a time, and was notably part of the group of women who travelled from Dublin to Belfast in May 1971 on the so-called “contraceptive train” to buy contraceptives in Belfast.
In paying tribute to Ms McCafferty following her death, President Michael D Higgins said she 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”.
In a message today for the unveiling, the President said: “Sabina and I were privileged to be friends of Nell McCafferty and to have experienced her enduring strength, courage, warmth and humour.
“Nell was a fearless journalist, a pioneer in raising searching questions which could be asked which had been buried, hidden or neglected.
“Indeed, this was one of the aspects which was most remarkable from the beginning of her work.
“May this mural stand as a lasting testament to a remarkable life, a reminder to all of us of the power of words, of activism, and of a conscience refuses to be silenced.”
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