Sad passing of Dr Áine Downey

The Co Donegal-born academic was reared in Belfast and was one of the few native Irish speakers to grow up in the staunchly unionist east of the city.

She was born in Fintown in 1942 and her family then moved to Belfast where her father, Richard Morton, was a teacher at St Malachy’s Christian Brothers’ primary school. The Mortons lived at Clara Street, just off the Castlereagh Road.

Dr Downey’s childhood story features in the book, ‘The Mortons Who Speak Chinese’, which was published last year. The book’s title is a reference to the Morton family’s unusual practice of speaking Irish in the unionist heartland where they lived.

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, a former member of the Western Health and Social Services Board, is survived by her sons, Garbhán and Cormac.