Moloney, Helen
Helen Moloney (1926–2011) trained as a painter and turned to stained glass in her early thirties having been inspired by seeing French medieval stained glass and, in 1958, visiting the large Evie Hone retrospective in Dublin. 1964 marked a turning point when she was commissioned by the ecclesiastical architect Liam McCormick to make eight stained glass windows for his church at Desertegney, Co. Donegal; this was the start of a fruitful relationship which amounted to twelve commissions over the following eighteen years. She made her designs in her small top floor Dublin flat and had them fabricated by different stained glass studios. By 1982, despite requests from prominent architects like McCormick, she declined all commissions, seemingly having lost faith in her own creativity; she was only 56. In addition to stained glass, Moloney also created a few works in dalle de verre, in enamel, and made designs for altar and ambo textile hangings.
Sources:
Helen’s Moloney’s research notes for the window, Moloney Collection, National Irish Visual Arts Library, Dublin.
Bart Felle, ‘Helen Moloney, stained glass artist, her life and works’, unpublished dissertation, M.Phil, University College Dublin, 2018.
Bart Felle’s biographical note on Moloney in the Gazetteer of Irish Stained Glass (Irish Academic Press, 2021).
