CAITLÍN NÍ MHAOILEOIN: Caitlín Ní Mhaoileoin was a Belfast woman who became a key community and language activist in her adopted area of Ros Goill, Co Donegal.
She was born in June 1940 as Kathleen Dowds in Madrid Street in the Short Strand area of east Belfast, the eldest of five children, to Sammy Dowds and his wife Molly (née Leonard). She was educated in St Matthew’s Primary School, then at the Dominican College, Fortwilliam. She excelled academically.
However, as the eldest of five in a working-class household, she felt obliged to get a job, despite having the examination results to proceed to university. Thus, she spent several years working as a clerk in the Northern Ireland civil service.
Her parents had a great respect for the Irish language, and encouraged Caitlín’s interest.
Through her involvement in Irish, she met Brian Ó Maoileoin, a young secondary school teacher. They married in 1961. Initially, they lived in west Belfast, where both were very involved in the establishment of the urban Gaeltacht area on Shaw’s Road in Belfast.
In 1968, they moved to Kenya, where Brian taught for a number of years.
They returned to Ireland in 1971, and set up home in the small and isolated Gaeltacht area of Ros Goill in north Donegal. They wanted to raise their children as Irish speakers in an Irish-speaking environment.
Preserving Irish
From the start, Caitlín threw herself into efforts to preserve and promote the Irish language in Ros Goill. Among other achievements, she organised local teenagers into an Irish-language choir. And, with her husband, she organised several musical and cultural festivals. She also threw herself into every initiative to develop the community.
Sometimes it seemed her efforts were fruitless. Then, in the last decade, she saw positive developments with the establishment of the Céim Aniar organisation, dedicated to preserving Irish in the area. She worked for Céim Aniar for a period – one of its stalwarts, she assisted with all its activities.
There was more to Caitlín than being an activist. She was an outstanding traditional singer, who in 1993 won the Comórtas na mBan (the women’s competition in traditional singing) at the Oireachtas, at the 23rd annual festival of Irish-language culture.
She possessed great vitality. At an age when many others consider retirement, she enrolled as a mature student at Dublin City University. As part of her course, she spent a year in Spain.
Most importantly, she was known in the Ros Goill community as somebody “a bhí i dtólamh ann duit”.
A fellow-worker in Céim Aniar described her: “Bhí sí suaimhneach séimh macánta, lách agus cinéalta agus a croí go hiomlán sa Ghaeilge. Déanfaidh muid í a chrothnú go mór.”
She is survived by her daughters Caoimhe, Máire and Bríd; her sons Pádraig and Brian Óg; her sisters Máire and Tina; and her brothers Art and Peter. She was predeceased by her husband Brian.