Helena Molony

Helena Mary Molony (15 January 1883 – 28 January 1967) was a prominent Irish republican, feminist and labour activist. She fought in the 1916 Easter Rising and later became the second woman president of the Irish Trade Union Congress.

Molony was born at 8 Coles Lane, off Henry Street, in the centre of Dublin, to Michael Molony, a grocer, and Catherine McGrath.

In 1903, inspired by a pro-nationalist speech given by Maud Gonne, Molony joined Inghinidhe na hÉireann (Daughters of Ireland) and began a lifelong commitment to the republican cause. In 1908 she became the editor of the organisation's monthly newspaper, Bean na hÉireann (Woman of Ireland). "Bean na hÉireann brought together a nationalist group; Constance Markievicz designed the title page, and wrote the gardening column; Sydney Gifford (under the nom de plume "John Brennan") wrote for the paper and was on its production team; contributors included Eva Gore-Booth, Susan L. Mitchell, and Katharine Tynan, as well as Patrick Pearse, Thomas MacDonagh, AE, Roger Casement, Arthur Griffith and James Stephens. The paper included an eclectic selection of articles – fashion notes (involving Irish materials and Irish-made clothes), a labour column, cookery, politics, fiction, poetry…

Molony was central to the school meals activism of the movement; with Maud Gonne, Marie Perolz and others, she organised the supply of daily school meals to children in impoverished areas, and pressured Dublin Corporation and other bodies to provide proper meals (meat and vegetables, and on Fridays rice and milk) to the starved children of Dublin city.

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