Barry, Moyra Aloysius (1886–1960), artist, was born in Dublin, eldest of eleven children of Bernard Barry, merchant, and Jane Barry (maiden name unknown), and was called ‘Mary’ by her parents. She was educated at Loreto Convent, North Great George's St., Dublin, before studying at the RHA Schools, Dublin, where she won prizes (1908–9) for drawing and composition, and at the Slade School of Fine Art, London (1911–14), where she was awarded (1913–14) the first prize for painting from the cast. During the 1920s she worked as a private tutor in English and painting in Quito, Ecuador, before settling in Dublin in the 1930s. She exhibited frequently at the RHA from 1908 to 1952 and held the first of several individual shows in Dublin at the Angus Gallery (1932). She earned recognition for her landscapes and portraits, but was best known for her flower paintings in oils and watercolours, frequently painting chrysanthemums and rhododendrons, and was described by Dermod O'Brien (qv), president of the RHA, as ‘the finest painter of flowers alive’ (Ryan-Smolin et al., 39) after visiting (1941) an exhibition at the Victor Waddington Galleries, Dublin.
A member of the Society of Dublin Painters (est. 1920), which encouraged the modern movement, she helped to shape the society during the 1930s and 1940s and was a member and regular exhibitor at the Dublin Sketching Club during the 1930s. She exhibited occasionally at the Watercolour Society of Ireland and contributed to group exhibitions in England, the Netherlands, and North America. Her work is held in several Irish galleries including the Crawford Municipal Art Gallery, Cork, and the Ulster Museum, Belfast, and her pleasing ‘Self portrait in the artist's studio’ (1920) hangs in the NGI. She never married; she died 2 February 1960 in Dublin and was buried in Glasnevin cemetery, Dublin.