Served with the General Post Office (GPO) garrison throughout Easter Week. She was beside Captain Tom Weafer in the Hibernian Bank when he was shot and fatally wounded on Wednesday. She also carried ammunition and dispatches from the GPO to Fr Matthew Hall, Church Street. On Friday, she accompanied wounded Irish Volunteers to Jervis Street Hospital. Later that day, she was arrested by British forces but released after a few hours.

Her two brothers, Sean (MSP34REF601) and Eamon (24SP5655), also fought in 1916. A third brother, Mick Price, was an IRA officer throughout 1919–1923 and continued his involvement with the organisation until the early 1930s.

She was appointed as Director of Organisation, a full-time position, in Cumann na mBan and established branches across the country. She married Cork IRA officer Tom Barry (MSP34REF57456) in August 1921. During the Civil War, she served with anti-Treaty IRA forces in the O’Connell Street area until the evacuation and was active until the ceasefire (May 1923).

Leslie Barry joined the Irish Red Cross Society at its inception in 1939 and was chairperson from 1950 to 1973. She was decorated by the Irish, German, Italian and Dutch governments for her humanitarian work and received the highest award (the Henry Dunant Medal) from the Red Cross in 1979. There have only been 153 medals awarded since 1969.

She was also chairperson of the Irish National Committee for Refugees from 1955 to 1960 and was national president of Gorta, the state organisation for famine relief, from 1960 to 1965. She died in Cork in 1984 aged 91.


[Sources: Dictionary of Irish Biography (DIB) entry and Jimmy Wren, The GPO Garrison Easter Week 1916: A Biographical Dictionary (2015)].