Walsh, Micheline Kerney- (1919–97), archivist and historian, was born 21 October 1919 in La Celle, St Cloud, Paris, second child and only daughter of Leopold Harding Kerney (qv) of Dublin and Raymonde Kerney (née Élie) of Bordeaux. Micheline Kerney was educated at Cross and Passion Convent, Kilcullen, Co. Kildare (1928–30); at College Ste Marie, Paris (1930–35); at Loreto College, Madrid, and Loreto College, St Stephen's Green, Dublin (1935–7); and at UCD (BA: languages, French and Spanish) (1938–41). She married (30 September 1941) Richard Brazil Walsh (b. 18 October 1914; d. 1992), son of Michael and Elizabeth Walsh, farmers, of Slieverue, Co. Kilkenny. He was educated at Mount Sion and UCD (BA, first-class honours; MA; Ph.D.), and remained in UCD, becoming statutory lecturer in phonetics, Irish scholar and author (The Irish of Ring; Sean-chaint na nDéise II), and MRIA. They had three sons and three daughters.
The early years of her marriage were devoted to family matters. In 1954 she joined the staff of the Overseas Archives in UCD when it was established by Professor Patrick McBride to promote the study of the Irish abroad, a move that was to be the basis of her life's work. In 1960 she published The O'Neills in Spain and The McDonnells of Antrim on the Continent. That same year, the first of her four-volume Spanish knights of Irish origin appeared, the other volumes following in 1965, 1970, and 1978. Her historical interest was in individuals rather than events, and this was reflected in her many contributions to the Irish Sword, journal of the Military History Society of Ireland: a series on Irishmen in the imperial service; another on the womenfolk of the Wild Geese; and a ten-article series, ‘The last years of Hugh O'Neill’. In 1980 she was elected to the council of the Military History Society, and in 1986 became the society's first woman vice-president.
She was closely associated with Cumann Seanchais Ard Mhacha and published eleven articles in its journal, Seanchas Ard Mhacha, mostly dealing with the O'Neills or with Irish–Spanish connections. Her ‘Destruction by peace’: Hugh O'Neill after Kinsale (1986) was published by Cumann Seanchais Ard Mhacha. In July 1986, in an historic ceremony at St Patrick's College, Maynooth, the king and queen of Spain were welcomed to the college by Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich (qv). Micheline participated in the welcome and presented King Juan Carlos with a copy of the book. In 1988 her work on the historic links between Ireland and Spain was acknowledged when she received the decoration Dama de la Orden de Isabel la Catolica, being the first Irishwoman to be so honoured. That same year, she was conferred with a doctorate of literature on published work by the NUI.
On her marriage, Micheline Kerney Walsh lived at 25 Upper Pembroke St., Dublin 2, and subsequently at 2 Grange Road, Rathfarnham; 50 Cowper Road, Dublin 6; and finally at 20 Elm House, Mespil Estate, Dublin 4, where she died 8 May 1997.
She left her personal collection of overseas archives to the Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich Memorial Library and Archive, Armagh, of which she was a trustee. The library/archive was opened on 8 May 1999, the anniversary both of her death and that of her friend Cardinal Ó Fiaich in 1990. Two years later the remaining, larger portion of her overseas archives, in custody in UCD, was entrusted to the library/archive.