Born: 1847 (circa), Ireland
Died: 29 December 1928
Country most active: United Kingdom
Also known as: NA
This biography is republished from The Dictionary of Irish Biography and was written by Linde Lunney. Shared by permission in line with Creative Commons ‘Attribution’ (CC BY) licencing.
McDonnell, Barbara Montgomery (1847?–1928), philanthropist, was the youngest daughter among four daughters and six sons of John MacDonnell, a prominent surgeon in Dublin, and Charity MacDonnell (née Dobbs). Her father was a son of James MacDonnell (d. 1845), and a younger brother of Sir Alexander MacDonnell (d. 1875). Her mother was a daughter of the Rev. Robert Conway Dobbs, a granddaughter of the Rev. William Bristow, and a great-granddaughter of Arthur Dobbs (d. 1765). Barbara was brought up in Dublin, but moved to Cushendall, Co. Antrim, her family’s original home place, sometime before 1885. In August 1885 she and her elder sisters, Rose Emily McDonnell (d. 1934) and Catherine Anne Stewart McDonnell (d. 1904), founded a cottage hospital in Cushendall, which survived to be taken over by the National Health Service. It seems likely that one of the sisters (possibly Barbara) was the ‘Miss O’Donnell [sic], a cultured lady from Cushendall and trained in nursing’ who became first matron of Coleraine Cottage Hospital, founded after 1894 in imitation of Cushendall (Gribbon, 20). Barbara McDonnell, though in her seventies, helped nurse wounded soldiers during the first world war.
In 1900 she started a toy factory in the village; she employed people to train the local work force as well as providing capital and premises. The well designed moving wooden toys became quite celebrated, and were in demand in America, England, and Ireland, particularly after they were displayed at the St Louis World’s Fair in 1904; Cushendall craftsmen made furniture for a big dolls’ house in the National Museum in Dublin. The first world war brought the end of what could have become an important craft industry in Co. Antrim; though it was making profits, the factory closed in 1914 for want of labour.
In the summer of 1904 Barbara McDonnell was chosen unanimously as president of the first Glens of Antrim Feis; she was one of a group of gentry women in Co. Antrim who took an interest in the Irish language and associated traditions. Barbara McDonnell, descendant of Gaelic families as well as of protestant landlords, came more readily to such activities than others of her class. Margaret E. Dobbs, a distant relative of the McDonnells, was probably the centre of the movement. McDonnell resented the involvement of F. J. Bigger in organising the feis, and resigned in October 1904 in protest at the Belfast takeover of the event. She died 29 December 1928, and was buried on 2 January 1929 in the ancient graveyard at Layde, Cushendall. Her house later became a youth hostel.