Derry academic and native Irish speak Dr Áine Downey
A retired psychologist and university lecturer, she passed away peacefully on Monday.
The 78-year-old’s story was featured last month in The Irish News.
It came after her sons, Garbhán and Cormac, published a book of her letters and memories as a Christmas present to their mother.
Born in Fintown in County Donegal in 1942, Dr Downey’s family moved to east Belfast where her father, Richard Morton was a teacher at St Malachy’s Christian Brothers’ primary school.
With her family, she lived at 3 Clara Street.
The Morton family’s practice of speaking Irish was so unusual in the unionist heartland that Dr Downey’s neighbours referred to them as “The Mickeys who speak Chinese”.
The family’s unofficial nickname was used by Dr Downey’s sons for the book they published last year, “The Mortons who speak Chinese”.
In the book, she recalled: “I did not, a child doesn’t, distinguish between languages – so there was the family way of talking (Irish), spoken between and by us whether in the house or outdoors and normally spoken with the many visitors to 3 Clara Street.
“I didn’t realise that this was ‘Irish’ and was different from the way of communication at St Anthony’s primary school and outside playing in the street or in the park; seemingly that was called English.”
Dr Downey’s son, Garbhán, a former Irish News journalist, recently ran as a candidate in the Republic’s Seanad Éireann elections to highlight the campaign for an independent north west university.
Dr Downey’s remains will arrive at her son Garbhán’s home at 1 pm today, Wednesday, May 27.
Sadly due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, the wake and funeral are strictly private for immediate family only.
