Ria Mooney

Ria Mooney (30 April 1903 – 3 January 1973) was an Irish stage and screen actress who served as artistic director of the Abbey Theatre from 1948 to 1963 and as director of the Gaiety School of Acting. She holds the distinction of being the first female producer at the Abbey Theatre.

Born in Rathmines, a suburb of Dublin, Mooney began performing at a young age. As a teenager she sang with the Rathmines and Rathgar Musical Society, and she pursued formal studies in art at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art. In 1924 she was invited to join the Abbey Theatre, where she worked alongside Cyril Cusack, Maire O'Neill, and F. J. McCormick. On 8 February 1926, she originated the role of Rosie Redmond in The Plough and the Stars, a performance that took place during a riot in which the players were attacked. She went on to appear in significant Irish plays by O'Casey, Teresa Deevy, Carroll, Shiels, Robinson, Lady Gregory, and Synge.

Mooney brought her work to Broadway between 1927 and 1937, appearing in productions that included The Plough and the Stars, The Playboy of the Western World, The Far-off Hills, Drama at Inish, and Katie Roche, among others. Following periods abroad and at the Gate Theatre, she was placed in charge of the Peacock Theatre and the Abbey Experimental Theatre Company in 1937.

Her memoirs reference a personal relationship with the poet F. R. Higgins, who served on the Abbey's board. During a shared journey to America, Mooney and Higgins discovered through conversation that they were third cousins. His sudden death from a heart attack in 1941 affected her deeply. After Higgins died, Ernest Blythe was appointed managing director of the Abbey. Mooney departed the Abbey in 1944 to direct the Gaiety School of Acting, and in 1947 she contributed to the establishment of the Radio Éireann Players.

In January 1948 Mooney returned to the Abbey as resident producer. Her tenure coincided with a series of significant challenges, including the death of F. J. McCormick in 1947 and a fire on 17 July 1951 that destroyed the Abbey Theatre building. The company subsequently leased the old Queen's Theatre in September of that year and remained there until 1966. Working alongside the demanding manager Ernest Blythe, with whom she frequently disagreed, Mooney used the period to bring younger actors into the company, drawing on her experience at the Gaiety School. Among those she employed were Ronnie Masterson, Joan O'Hara, Ray McAnally, Philip O'Flynn, Angela Newman, Bill Foley, and Doreen Madden. Between 1948 and 1963, seventy-five new plays were produced across the two Abbey locations, the majority of which Mooney directed. Mooney died on 3 January 1973.