Following the release of the first two episodes of Airbrushed, focusing on queer Irish revolutionaries Dr Kathleen Lynn and Eva Gore Booth, the series returns for its third instalment to tell the story of republican, feminist and socialist activist Helena Molony.

Once famously described as "the patron saint of lost causes," Molony was a revered actor in Dublin's Abbey Theatre, although she later stepped away due to her commitment to her political work.

She was a prominent member Cumunm na mBan and is credited with bringing many into the movement, including Constance Markievicz and Dr Kathleen Lynn, who once wrote about Helena: "We used to have long talks and she converted me to the national movement. She was a very clever and attractive girl with a tremendous power of making friends."

In 1908, she became the editor of Bean Na hÉireann, and was also central to the school meal activism movement alongside Maud Gonne, organising the supply of daily school meals to children in impoverished areas.

Helena was involved in the 1913 Dublin Lock-out, helping James Larkin disguise himself as an old man to give his famous speech on O'Connell Street.

She was also secretary at Liberty Hall. During the defence of the building in 1916, she watched her commanding officer Sean Connolly be killed, before being herself captured and imprisoned until December 1916.

After the civil war, she became the second female president of the Irish Trade Union Congress and set up The Friends of Soviet Russia in the 1920s.

From the 1930s, she shared her life with Grangegorman hospital's chief psychiatrist Dr Eveleen O'Brien. They shared a house in North County Dublin for many years before Molony died of a stroke in 1967.

Helena Molony is buried in the republican plot at Glasnevin Cemetery.

Margaret Skinnider and Helena Molony's gravesites at Glasnevin Cemetery. Copyright: Emily O'Brien

In this episode of Airbrushed, we discuss all this and more Dr Mary McAuliffe, historian, lecturer and director of Gender Studies in UCD, as well as the author of Richmond Barracks 1916: We Were There, 77 Women of the Easter Rising.

This episode is presented by Niamh Browne and Alana Daly-Mulligan.

The third episode of Airbrushed is out now on the Hot Press Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Listen below: