Kathleen Walsh D'Arcy, a legendary figure in the Irish American community, died on July 18th, in New York City at Memorial Sloan Kettering after a year long battle with cancer. A social worker, feminist, educator, activist, ally of and advocate for NYC's LGBTQIA+ communities, Walsh D'Arcy was 77 years old.
She was born in a blizzard on December 9th, 1948, at St. Elizabeth’s hospital in New York City. Her mother, Kathleen Kearney Walsh, from Tullamore, County Offaly was the first woman director of the United Irish Counties Association, a founding member and president of the Offaly Association, president and founder of the East Hampton Irish American Club, and the founder of the Irish Hospital Cheer Committee that brought entertainment and gifts to residents of hospitals and nursing homes around New York for over thirty years.
Her father, Patrick F. Walsh, was from Clonmel, County Tipperary, musician and bandleader in New York, a member of the Musicians' Union, the Hotel Workers’ Union, and the Tipperary Association.
She attended Notre Dame School of Manhattan from Kindergarten through twelfth grade where she was taught by nuns that cherished language, literature and music. She was an Irish step dancer, competing and winning medals with the McNiff dancers starting at a very young age, even making an appearance on the Ed Sullivan show. She marched and step-danced up 5th Avenue every St. Patrick's Day Parade.
Traveling to Ireland to visit friends and family throughout her youth led her to a permanent move to Dublin in her 20s. She worked for the late Sinn Feín president Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, a mentor and friend. She belonged to communities of actors, writers, musicians, activists and artists including one of her best friends Irish artist Pauline Cummins. Her life, identity, and legacy existed and will continue to exist on both sides of the Atlantic.
On a trip back to her hometown of New York City she met her husband in an Irish pub, the late Philip V. D’Arcy born in Killusty, County Tipperary and raised in Washington Heights, N.Y., “and the rest as they say, is history,” according to their surviving daughter, artist Maeve D’Arcy.
She married Philip V. D'Arcy in 1975 with an epic party under a yellow tent in the backyard of her parents home in Springs, N.Y. D’Arcy was a bus driver (as was his father), then a transit supervisor and a proud member of the Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority (MaBSTOA) Emerald Society. Kathleen and their daughter Maeve were devastated by his death in 2007.
Kathleen was also a writer, editor and teacher. She compiled and co-edited “Territories of the Voice: Contemporary Stories by Irish Women Writers” (1990); later published under the title “A Green and Mortal Sound” (2001) with the late Louise DeSalvo. An essay, “Broken Hips,” co-authored with Rosette Capotorto, based on their collection of oral histories of women in nursing homes was included in the collection “All American Women” (1986) edited by Johnnetta B. Cole and reimagined by the authors as “Inside Stories” a play that has been performed at Roosevelt House, the 92nd Street Y and Project Theatre in Dublin. She organized a diverse group of undergraduate Hunter women to attend the Third Interdisciplinary Congress on Women in July 1987 at Trinity College, Dublin with baby Maeve in tow.
All this while still a “returning woman” undergraduate at Hunter College where she graduated Summa Cum Laude with a B.A, from Hunter College and a M.S.W. from Hunter's Silberman School of Social Work. As a social worker Kathleen worked with homebound elders, teenage mothers, and survivors of domestic violence. While at Hunter College she met and befriended Audre Lorde, Blanche Wiesen Cook, Clare Coss, and Dorothy Heller among others. A student leader, her activism was essential in bringing to campus such luminaries as bell hooks, Jesse Jackson, Bella Abzug, and Bishop Desmond Tutu.
For over two decades Kathleen devoted her energy and expertise to the St. Pat’s for All parade in Queens, N.Y. She knew the radical need for inclusion in the Irish diaspora and was a dedicated ally and advocate to the LGBTQIA+ community, and to all participants of the inclusive parade that she fostered and grew into the legendary parade it is today. She played a critical role in conversations that led to the inclusion of her friends in the queer community in the 5th Ave St. Patrick’s Day parade. On March 17th 2016 she proudly walked shoulder to shoulder up the Avenue with friends and fellow organizers including Tarlach MacNiallas, Edith Windsor, former Mayor Bill DeBlasio, Danny Dromm, Brendan Fay, Brendan Costello, and Malachy McCourt among many others. Later that year Kathleen Walsh D’Arcy was a recipient of the Presidential Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad presented by President Michael D. Higgins in Dublin.
Among her many affiliations, Kathleen was a board member of the Irish Institute and of Irish American Writers & Artists, Inc. She has been a tireless advocate for and organizer of fundraising events in alliance with Irish Arts Center and The New York Irish Center. She is quoted in 2014 "Immigrants, families, artists, human rights organizations and progressive city leaders have made St. Pat’s For All the highlight of the St. Patrick’s season in New York City."
At Hunter College her teacher mentor and friend Audre Lorde taught “Your silence will not protect you.” Kathleen believed in love, tolerance, forgiveness, good parties, and speaking out against injustice. May we all continue to fight the good fight in her honor.
She was preceded in death by her parents, by her older brother John Maurice "Willie" Walsh, and her beloved husband Philip V. D’Arcy. She is survived by her daughter Maeve D’Arcy, Maeve’s partner Peter McGovern, her grandson Seamus McGovern D’Arcy, her sister Maureen Hossbacher, nieces, nephews, comrades and many many friends and communities. There will be a memorial in the fall at the Irish Arts Center celebrating her life and legacy.
