HELENA MOLONY

The Irish Independent death notices for 30 January 1967 recorded the death of Helena Molony of Sutton (Irish Citizens Army) with the words simply: ‘deeply regretted’. Her funeral, it was reported would take place in the Republican Plot some days later. Reading that obituary, the reader is none the wiser on the remarkable and colourful life led by Molony. An obituary however the following day in the Irish Press sheds light on a remarkable life lived:

MISS HELENA MOLONY, who died yesterday at Sutton, Co. Dublin, gave a lifetime, of service to the national and trade union movements. Aged 84, she had been in failing health lor some time. Patriot, trade unionist, writer and actress, when the Rising broke out, she was with the Irish Citizen Army party which Molony worked tirelessly for. 

…It was in nearby Liberty Hall headquarters of James Connolly's Irish Citizen Army, that the young woman elected to play her greatest role. She had already been second in command to Countess Markievicz in the running of the I.T.G.W.U. soup kitchens during 1913, and when the Citizen Army was formed to protect strike meetings from attacks.

The young actress was no stranger to the upheavals caused by' the growing strength of the Republican and Labour movements: She had joined Inghinidhe na hEireann when Maude Gonne was organising to defeat a proposal that Dublin Corporation should present an address of loyalty to the British monarch on his visit to the city.

Miss Molony was arrested after speaking at a meeting during the campaign of 1911 and sentenced to a month's imprisonment for throwing a stone through a window in Grafton Street which contained a royal portrait.

She was released when Anna Parnell, who wanted her to proceed with the editing of her history of the Ladies' Land League, paid her fine, but she was re-arrested at a public meeting organised to greet her release and received another month's sentence.

She edited ‘Bean na hEireann’ the small monthly journal of Inghinidhe, whose contributors included Joseph Plunkett, Thomas MacDonagh, P.H. Pearse, James Connolly and James Stephens.

Helena Molony played a major part in the dramatic appearance of Jim Larkin in the window of the Imperial Hotel in O'Connell Street on Sunday, July 13, 1913, when he addressed a banned meeting which was broken up by an unmerciful and indiscriminate police baton charge.

She helped to disguise Larkin as an old clergyman and on the Sunday, posing as his daughter, she accompanied him in a carriage through police lines to the hotel. As soon as Larkin began to speak from the window the police attacked and he was arrested, but Miss Molony escaped.

….in association with Louie Bennett, Margaret Buckley and others, she was responsible for the foundation and guidance, of the Irish Women Workers' Union. Throughout the Black-and-Tan period she was "on the run" and, in addition to her Sinn Fein and union activities, she sometimes acted as an I.R.A. courier in Dublin.  She was the confidante of Republican leaders. After the Treaty Miss Molony remained on the Republican side and was imprisoned at Kilmainham with her great friend, Madame MacBride, and again with Countess Markievicz. In later years, particularly during the Second World War, she devoted herself to organising and strengthening Irish women workers through their own union. She was a member of the Dublin Trades Union Council. One of Miss Molony's last public appearances was during last year's celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the 1916 Rising, when she attended the opening of the Garden of Remembrance. She was also present at the unveiling of a plaque in the Abbey Theatre to commemorate the actors and actresses who took part in the Rising…

For more information on Molony search the pages of the Irish Newspaper Archive (www.irishnewsarchive.com )