| Collection Description | Born in Dublin on 19 October 1896 at 8 Fleet Street, Kathleen Barry Moloney was the eldest of seven children. Her
parents Thomas and Mary (née Dowling) and her aunt Judith ran a prosperous dairy that included an eighty-six acre
holding at Tombeagh, Hacketstown County Carlow and a retail outlet below the family home in Fleet Street. When
Thomas Barry died in 1908 the Barry family found themselves split between their homes in Dublin and at Tombeagh.
The Barry family were staunch republicans, in particular the older Barry Children. One brother, Michael, was active in
the Carlow Brigade and the girls, particularly Kathleen, in Cumann na mBan. She joined the university branch of
Cumann na mBan in 1920 and was close to the most senior republicans including Michael Collins, Austin
Stack,Richard Mulcahy and Eamon de Valera throughout the 1920–24 period. She opposed the Treaty.
In April 1922 she was asked by de Valera to accompany Countess Markievicz as a member of a republican delegation
which travelled to the USA. Shortly after her return the civil war started and she, along with Mary MacSwiney and
Linda Kearns, remained in the Hammam Hotel in O’Connell Street during the week-long siege that ended in the death
of Cathal Brugha. Between June and October 1922 Kathleen organised and maintained a line of communication
between Dublin and General Liam Lynch in the South. In December 1922 she was asked to reorganise the Irish
Republican Prisoner’s Dependents Fund (IRPDF) and acted as general secretary of the fund until September 1924.
She was asked to travel to Australia with Linda Kearns in September 1924 on behalf of the Reconstruction Committee
of the IRPDF to raise funds to provide financial aid to released prisoners. Shortly before her departure Kathleen
married Jim Moloney in Westland Row church. She returned to Ireland in April 1925 and effectively retired from political
activity, settling into married life and raising her growing family ... From around 1930 Kathleen began working as Sales
Publicity Advisor with the Electricity Supply Board (ESB) and was employed there until the 1950s when she retired due
to ill health. During her time with the ESB Kathleen became a very active member of the union, the ATGWU, and
various staff committees, once again displaying enormous energy and resourcefulness in campaigning for equality and
workers rights on behalf of staff in the ESB. Kathleen remained a committed republican throughout her life,
campaigning against the executions of republican prisoners between 1939 and 1947. She also acted as committee
member of the Women’s Industrial Development Association (WIDA) between 1932 and 1939. She and Jim supported
the establishment of Clann na Poblachta and its involvement in the first inter-party government in 1948. Kathleen Barry
Moloney died, at the age of 72, in Dublin on 10 January 1969. [UCD Archives]
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