Journalist, author and trailblazing feminist Nell McCafferty has died. She was 80.

Her family confirmed her death this morning at a nursing home in Co Donegal.

McCafferty was born in Derry in 1944 to Hugh and Lily McCafferty and grew up in the Bogside. She was among the early cohorts of Catholics admitted to Queens University in Belfast, where she studied arts and got involved in civil rights politics. She spent time teaching briefly before beginning her journalism career in The Irish Times.

A Trailblazing Voice for Women's Rights

She was a founding member of the Irish Women’s Liberation Movement and found her voice writing on women and women’s rights, poverty and social injustices in the Ireland of the late 1960s and 1970s.

McCafferty's outspoken advocacy for women's rights and social justice made her a controversial figure in Irish society. She was a vocal critic of the Catholic Church's influence on Irish life and was a strong supporter of women's reproductive rights. She was also a prominent advocate for the rights of gay and lesbian people.

A Legacy of Activism and Journalism

Her noted works include the book A Woman to Blame, on the Kerry babies case. Other books included The Armagh Women on woman republican prisoners and their hunger strikes in Armagh jail; Peggy Deery: A Derry Family at War; her autobiography, and a collection of her writings, Goodnight Sisters: Selected Writings of Nell McCafferty.

McCafferty's work as a journalist was often groundbreaking. She was one of the first Irish journalists to write about women's issues and her work helped to change the way Irish society viewed women. She also wrote extensively about the Troubles in Northern Ireland and her work helped to bring the conflict to a wider audience.

A Life of Courage and Commitment

In tributes to mark her 80th birthday in March, published in The Irish Times, President Michael D Higgins said those who had “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”.

McCafferty's death is a loss to Irish society. She was a woman of great courage and commitment, who dedicated her life to fighting for social justice. Her work will continue to inspire generations of Irish women and men.

Remembering Nell

Many have expressed their condolences and paid tribute to McCafferty's legacy. Kitty Holland, Social Affairs Correspondent of The Irish Times, described McCafferty as a “huge figure in my life, a huge figure in journalism”. “She is a huge loss to people personally, a huge loss to Ireland and to women,” she told BBC Radio Foyle.

Journalist Susan McKay worked with Ms McCafferty in Dublin in the 1990s. She paid tribute to an “absolute inspiration” who had a profound effect on Irish journalism. Ms McCafferty, she added, “was very determined that she was going to get to write about things regardless of whether editors wanted her to or not”. “She had a hugely transformational effect on the way all of us do journalism in Ireland,” she added.

McCafferty's legacy will live on through her writing and activism. She was a woman who dared to speak truth to power and who fought for a more just and equitable society. Her death is a loss to Ireland and to the world.

In 1972 she interviewed the mother of Martin McGuiness at the time that he was leading the IRA's operations in Derry. In 2024 declassified government files reported on by the Belfast Telegraph include a record of a conversation in 1994 between McCafferty and officials in the British embassy in Dublin. Ms McCafferty was described in the report of the meeting as being “in close personal touch with the Sinn Féin leadership and specifically with Martin McGuinness and Mitchel McLaughlin”.

McCafferty also spoke out against homophobia in the Catholic Church and Irish society. She told RTÉ's The Late Late Show in 2004 that being gay was the last great taboo in Ireland. In 2004 she published a memoir titled Nell, in which which recounted her upbringing in the Bogside and relationship with her long-term partner, the novelist Nuala O'Faolain.

McCafferty died aged 80 at a nursing home in County Donegal.