Derry, Northern Ireland
For most of the world, Nell McCafferty was a pioneering journalist, feminist, civil rights activist, and one of Ireland’s most fearless public voices. For Carmel McCafferty and her daughter Muire McCallion, she was simply “our Nell.”
Derry, Northern Ireland
“She was unapologetically north of Ireland and she meant freedom for a woman… It’s very fashionable now, it’s very safe to say, ‘I am a Derry girl.’ Nell was a proud Derry girl when it was dangerous to be a Derry girl.”
Carmel is Nell McCafferty’s youngest sister, one of six siblings raised in a modest three-bedroom home in Derry’s Bogside. Their shared childhood—crowded, spirited, and full of laughter—formed the foundation of a lifelong bond that endured through Nell’s rise to national prominence. While the public knew Nell as a relentless campaigner for women’s rights, civil rights, and social justice, Carmel knew the sister who borrowed her clothes without permission, spun elaborate stories to cover her tracks, and never lost the fierce certainty that women should always go first—even in the family bath.
Muire, Carmel’s daughter, grew up knowing Nell as the adventurous aunt who arrived with improbable schemes, unexpected journeys, and endless curiosity. Whether sailing around Ireland on a fishing boat, traveling in a horse-drawn caravan, or discussing music, politics, and love with equal enthusiasm, Nell treated her niece not as a child but as a fellow traveler in the world. Through those conversations, Muire inherited a firsthand understanding of the values that drove Nell’s public life: compassion, equality, courage, and a deep interest in how people think and feel.
Together, Carmel and Muire offer a perspective on Nell McCafferty that history books cannot capture. Their stories reveal a woman who was simultaneously a national figure and a beloved family member—funny, stubborn, generous, mischievous, and endlessly curious. Through their memories, Nell emerges not only as a transformative voice in Irish public life, but as a sister and aunt whose greatest legacy may be the love, laughter, and conviction she inspired in those closest to her.
Now, as Derry honors Nell McCafferty with a mural overlooking the streets where she grew up and began her activism, Carmel and Muire continue to keep her memory alive—not as a monument, but as a living presence whose spirit still lingers in family stories, community struggles, and the city she never stopped loving.
This episode is a free-wheeling recollection of Nell McCafferty, the sister and the aunt, as remembered in a warm and raucous conversation.
To read the introduction to this series, follow this link.
The Troubles: Finding a Path Toward Healing in Northern Ireland
To listen to our podcast, follow this link or find us on the platform of your choice.
A Peace of My Mind on Buzzsprout
Credits:
Interview and photos: John Noltner
Field production: summer interns Kate West, Sawyer Garrison, and Kaitlin Imai
Audio engineering: Razik Saifullah