This biography is republished from The Dictionary of Irish Biography and was written by Gerry McElroy. Shared by permission in line with Creative Commons ‘Attribution’ (CC BY) licencing.
Born: 1902, United Kingdom
Died: 9 December 1974
Country most active: Ireland
Also known as: Mary Maude Mahony
Rooney, Maude (1902–1974), consumers’ and women’s rights activist, was born Mary Maude Mahony in Co. Armagh, one of six children (three boys and three girls) of a retired RIC district inspector (who was a catholic), and his wife Frances Charlotte. She was raised in Holywood, Co. Down, seems to have been educated locally and later worked as a secretary to Lord Oranmore and Browne at Castlemargaret, Co. Mayo, becoming a captain in the voluntary division of the Red Cross during the Emergency of 1939–45. In 1949 she joined the Irish Housewives’ Association and despite its limited membership, which was initially concentrated in the Dublin area, she helped to develop both the membership and agenda of the movement. She assumed a number of roles within the IHA between 1949 and 1965, serving as honorary treasurer, minutes secretary, and joint honorary secretary. In 1964 she represented the IHA on the women’s advisory committee of the institute for industrial research and standards, and during the same period she was also an active member of the IHA’s social and international sub-committees and was on its editorial board which produced The Irish Housewife and (in later years) The Irish Housewives’ Voice. In 1965–8 she was chairwoman of the association and during this period helped to establish branches in different parts of the country, including those in Cavan (April 1966) and Limerick (May 1966). Branches tended to develop localised agendas, and in the case of the Limerick branch issues such as clean milk, the condition of public toilets, the lack of public toilets for women, prices of consumer goods, and local rates dominated its activities.
In June 1966 she attended the fourth biennial conference of the international office of consumers’ unions in Israel. Inspired by what she saw, she returned to Ireland, and the central committee of the IHA held lengthy discussions about consumer protection, deciding that Ireland needed a group of men and women to concentrate solely on consumer rights and that the IHA could continue its work in other spheres. The Irish Housewives’ Association called a meeting of all interested parties in the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin on 7 September 1966, from which a steering committee was established and which in turn called another public meeting at the Metropole on 29 October 1966 at which Maude Rooney became chairwoman and then vice-chairman of the newly established Consumers’ Association of Ireland, retaining the latter position till her death in 1974 and spending a good deal of her working day as an unpaid complaints officer. In 1967 she also served as IHA representative on the rates study group, and in the same year she was part of the IHA delegation that attended a conference of the International Alliance of Women. The meeting was told that the UN commission had issued a directive to women’s groups to examine the status of women in their respective countries, and where necessary to urge their governments to establish a national commission on women. These ideas were followed up on 30 January 1968 when Rooney presided over a meeting of various women’s groups in the Central Hotel, Dublin. In 1971 she served again on the women’s advisory committee. In November 1974 she was one of the leaders of a protest march held in Dublin over rising prices. She died suddenly in Dublin on 9 December 1974 and was buried in Glasnevin cemetery, Dublin. Ironically, on the day after her death, the national consumer advisory council presented proposals to the government which incorporated many ideas for which she had campaigned throughout her adult life.
She married (1946) Michael Rooney, insurance official, at Westland Row church, Dublin; they had no children. Their home was at Redesdale Road, Mount Merrion, Dublin. She was an influential figure in attempting to establish consumer rights as a central part of public policy in Ireland, and a pioneering activist in a difficult struggle against sexism, within both Irish society and the Irish state.