Mooney, Ria (1903-1973)

Irish actor and drama teacher. She had a long association with the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, her home town, and was its first woman director (1948-63).

Mooney was on stage from the age of six. She first appeared at the Abbey in 1924, won acclaim for her performance in Seán O'Casey's The Plough and The Stars in 1926, and made her US acting debut in 1927. After a short spell at Dublin's Gate Theatre, she returned to the Abbey in 1935, and was put in charge of its experimental Peacock Theatre two years later.