Catherine Drea: Nell

I’ve been trying to remember all the times that Nell McCafferty came to Waterford and the local women’s connection to her over the years. 

After chatting to some who were there, let me just say at the outset that she was loved, appreciated and admired. Nell was in our eyes a total warrior.

Was there even a Women’s Movement in Waterford? Well, yes there was but it was very much under the radar and ignored by most of the mainstream media and politicians. 

Small groups of women worked over years; to establish the Rape Crisis Centre, to support other aspects of women’s healthcare, to challenge childbirth practices in the hospital, to improve cancer care, Hepatitis C, to establish reproductive rights, to outlaw the marriage bar, to eradicate the domicile laws, to uncover the incarceration of young pregnant women, for maternity leave, for jobs, for education etc etc. 

Everywhere you looked there was work for activists to do and it was done. Most of it was done quietly in a very grey and bleak time. Now this work is largely forgotten.

While Nell was sharing her rage during the Late Late Show years, many women in Ireland were still trying to figure out how to tackle the crippling need for change and progress. 

Joining the EU was a signal to the powers that be that it was time for equality but it took many years before we caught up thanks to the dedicated agitation of these women’s groups. 

When Albert Reynolds came back to Ireland with millions to support Ireland’s advancement things really started to move for women at community level.

Groups like the Irish Country Women’s Association, the Widows Association, the Women’s Political Association, the trade unions representing teachers and nurses, joined the activist women’s groups and began to work together. Soon many federations and networks were formed. 

One of the wonderful outcomes here was the establishment of Waterford Women's Centre.

One of the first times that I remember Nell coming to Waterford was when we began to celebrate International Women’s Day. 

In 1986 the UN completed its work on the Decade for Women and for the first time named the day of March 8th as International Women’s Day. 

A few of us got together and created an off-the-cuff gathering that evening in the old Garter Lane. Women’s Day has continued to be celebrated every year since. Soon it will be the 40 years of celebrating that day in Waterford.

Early on we invited Nell to be a speaker at our Women’s Day event. We had made a big point of inviting ourselves to be received at the Mayor’s Office in City Hall as part of our day. 

Nell was with us when we trooped in for the first time amongst those hallowed walls. It was all going so well. We were each telling the Mayor, Liam Curham, about our work, our aspirations and how women’s rights should be part of the agenda of the Council.

We didn’t know or expect Nell‘s surprise tactics at that time. It didn’t take long! 

Shuffling from foot to foot around the large table in a huge meeting room Nell was getting impatient. The Mayor (who by the way was an absolutely lovely man) began to explain his role and the role of the council and talk a little about the history of the building. Nell had heard enough!

She began to interrupt the Mayor with a few corrections about the history of the political struggle in Ireland and eventually due to her incredible ability to articulate issues and give amazing examples, it ended up that Nell took the floor and the poor Mayor never really got a chance to get it back! 

“Did you ever think Mr Mayor that it might be time to stand aside and let a woman take over?????” Ouch!

Now we were all very committed activists in our own way and were carefully building these alliances for our many causes. Nell had no time for that kind of approach and went straight to the heart of things. 

We giggled for years afterwards about her nerve and her fearlessness. I think Liam Curham really enjoyed Nell too. You couldn’t but be more than impressed with her skills and her sense of humour.

She often came to events in Waterford and was warm and funny in equal measure. But once she was invited by the local arts community to discuss her book and to be part of a line-up of writers. I was to chair her event.

On the night she arrived, she was clearly in bad form. It’s a long journey from Dublin on a cold winter’s evening maybe. I picked it up immediately. This was not a “women’s event” where she was salt of the earth and very comfortable. I don’t know what it was exactly but she scared the living daylights out of me, savaged the other panellist, and was generally uncooperative.

Even as she made mincemeat of protocols and the establishment, there was a fragility about Nell. Something hard to put your finger on but when you understood, you just knew. 

For all the bluster, like so many of us, underneath it all, Nell was a vulnerable and gentle soul. 

We will always remember Nell as a legend, the first to challenge, to show us all the way, to blaze a trail.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a h-anam.