A family who wanted an Irish-language inscription on their mother’s headstone in England were racially discriminated against, an ecclesiastical appeals court has found.

The grounds for refusing permission to the Keane family in Coventry were unreasonable and legally flawed.

They have just received the court’s written judgment outlining the reasons they won their appeal earlier this year.

Irish-born Margaret Keane died three years ago aged 73. The former dinner lady remained proud of her heritage throughout her life.

Her family, who were all born in England, campaigned for two years to be allowed to put the inscription “inár gcroí go deo (in our hearts forever)” on her headstone.

Initially, they were blocked by an ecclesiastical judge, who claimed the Irish phrase could be regarded as a “political statement” if there was no translation, given the “passions and feelings connected with the use of Irish Gaelic”.

The phrase is now inscribed on Mrs Keane’s headstone.

“The ruling now gives us a fuller understanding of the grounds of our success,” Mrs Keane’s daughter, Bez Martin, told the Irish Independent. “It was discrimination based on our Irish identity.

“Hopefully, this ruling will change things for the people who come after us.”

After receiving the court finding that allowed the family’s preferred inscription, Ms Martin and one of her sisters  went to their mother’s grave at St Giles churchyard in Exhall, Coventry.

“We sat with our mum and hoped she was proud of us for representing our Irish heritage and culture, for standing up for it and the right to express it,” Ms Martin said.

The Arches Court, the Church of England’s highest ecclesiastical court, found the effect of the decision to refuse them “was to discriminate directly against the appellant on the basis of her race”.

It also found there was no “evidence or any other rational footing” for presuming an Irish inscription would be read as a political slogan.

The judgment directs church officials to review their rules.