Caitlin Healy, as Secretary of State for Ireland, was responsible for matters not devolved to the Irish government and parliament. such as social insurance, old age pension, and the postal, telegraph and telephone services. The Irish Office also liased between the UK and Irish governments. In the five counties in the north of Ireland, Healy was also responsible for areas covered by the Boards of Agriculture and Fisheries, Education, Health and Local Government, and Trade, and the Home Office.
An interview between Healy and the editor of The Irish Times and Healy was published in that newspaper in the issue dated Monday 5 May 1890. They exchanged a few words in Irish at the start of the interview. She went on to say that her Catholic faith was of the greatest importance to her. She was a socialist because she was a Catholic, with its values of practical love of neighbour, equality, and solidarity.
She spoke about growing up on a small farm in County Clare, and living with her parents and six brothers and sisters in a one room cabin. During the Famine we ate grass. Het mother and father gave up food so she and her brothers and sisters had enough to eat. They starved to death. She knew what it was like to live in abject poverty, and to go to bed hungry, night after night.
Although she and her sisters and brothers were resident in Limerick workhouse for only a month, she would never forget the harsh and inhumane regime, how they were treated with contempt, and the degrading work. Then she revealed something she had never shared with anyone, except her husband. 'Me and my sisters heard from women in the workhouse that they earned money by prostituting themselves. So that was what I decided to do, for the sake of my brothers and sisters. I was a seventeen year old virgin . After a few times letting men having sexual relations with me , it did not hurt and I got used to it. After three weeks I had earned enough money for us to leave the workhouse, We rented three rooms in a house, and I earned money by doing unskilled seamstress work.'