Máire Gavan Duffy, who has died in her 93rd year, was a woman whose life was steeped in the history of Ireland. Her grandfather, Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, was imprisoned with Daniel O'Connell. Sir Charles was one of the leaders of the Young Irelanders and was tried in 1848 for his involvement in that movement. He subsequently emigrated to Australia, where he later became a member of parliament.
Her father, George Gavan Duffy, was president of the High Court, envoy of the Irish Republic in Italy and France (1920-21), and one of the signatories of the Anglo-Irish Treaty.
Máire, who was born in 67 Lower Leeson Street in Dublin to Margaret and George Gavan Duffy, was deeply influenced throughout her life by these two inspirational men and what they stood for.
The Irish language was part of her daily life from the age of two, when the family went to live in Glenvar in Co Donegal. Máire attended Scoil Bhríde, which was founded by her aunt, Louise Gavan Duffy, at 70 St Stephen's Green, from 1923 to 1929. Scoil Bhríde was an all-Irish schools for girls, where Irish was the only medium of instruction. On leaving Scoil Bhríde she continued her education abroad, in Switzerland, Italy and France.
She received her first Holy Communion in Rome in 1921 from Pope Benedict XV during the time when her father was envoy in Italy.
It was her father's wish that Irish would be her first language, a wish she honoured. She graduated from University College Dublin in 1935. She was fluent in Irish, French and Italian, and had a good command of Latin. The breadth of her linguistic ability was an expression of her interest in and awareness of the internationality of the world.
She worked as a social worker with the Dublin diocese for Archbishop John Charles McQuaid between 1945 and 1956, when she developed an acute awareness of poverty, injustice and altruism. This would inform and shape her work with the poor in Dublin and further afield in India throughout her life.
Having resigned her post as social worker, Máire set up a coffee shop at No 3 Molesworth Street with her dear friend Elizabeth Mary Payne. The Turf Café was a project which was dear to her heart, illustrating as it did her pride in Irishness, and at the same time the dominance of her humanity over her interest in material things.
Máire's later life was the embodiment of simplicity, spirituality and the value of silence.
One of her great contributions to her community in Terenure was the establishment of a Christian meditation group, which continues to meet weekly in her former home.
She devoted much of her time and energy to the administration of the New Hope Trust, a charity set up by her uncle, Fr Thomas Gavan Duffy, for the education of catechists in India. This trust continues to support the formation and training of catechists in the diocese of Pondicherry, southern India.
Máire held Roger Casement in the highest regard, partly as a consequence of her father's defence of him in 1916, and referred in an interview on RTÉ in 2001 to Casement's letter of thanks to her father: "I shall bear your friendship with me as one of the precious gifts from God, given by Him to those whose hearts are faint and broken . . . for it was you, and your help and courage that gave me courage to the end . . And now that it is all over I am happier than you can possibly conceive - with heart, and mind and soul, at peace - and reconciled with all men and all things. Ever Yours, Roger Casement."
Máire now is at peace with all men, and all things. In iothlainn Dé go gcastar sinn.
Máire Gavan Duffy: born October 15th, 1914; died June 12th, 2007