Marie Barrett

Marie Barrett (nee Moloney) was born in Ballyhahill, County Limerick, 20kms from where she now resides, in Granagh. Her secondary schooling was with the Sisters of Mercy in Mount Trenchard, an all-girl boarding school near Foynes.

She studied French and English Literature in University College Cork from 1969 to 1972 and graduated with a BA degree. She spent five months with a family in north-east of Paris which helped with her fluency in French.

She also taught herself to read and write Spanish in her early years of her marriage to Maurice, a physicist she had briefly met at college. Together, they raised and home-schooled their three daughters, Ailbhe, Ester and Louise, eventually opening up a tuition centre that catered for second and third level students.