The family of a Ballyhaunis man have thanked the Irish community across the UK for their support in a campaign to have an inscription "as Gaeilge" on their mother's grave.

Ballyhaunis native Bernard Keane and his family in Coventry yesterday won their appeal in the UK's highest ecclesiastical court to have the inscription in Irish only on the headstone.

A decision by a judge in a lower court had ruled Margaret Keane's inscription must also carry an English translation, in case passersby thought the Irish message was a political slogan.

That decision was overturned in a ruling yesterday evening in the Court of Arches, and the way has now been cleared for the words "in ár gcroíthe go deo" - meaning "in our hearts forever" - to be written on her headstone. 

Margaret Keane died in July 2018 at the age of 73, and her gravestone can now be erected according to the family's wishes.

Her daughter Bernadette Martin told Midwest News that they never expected such a battle when they applied for permission for the headstone.....