She began her career in 1969 as a student activist playing a Phil Ochs song at a Vietnam War protest, one of many causes she embraced.
As an undergraduate she cofounded Pittsburgh's first rape crisis center and went on to earn a Juris Doctor degree in 1978, seeking to effect social change through the legal system.
Blending Irish music with American folk and bluegrass, as well as her political message, she recorded twelve albums and toured most of the period from 1991 to 2015, attending protest rallies and joining the concerts of groups like Peter, Paul and Mary.
[6] As a high school student, Feeney purchased a Martin D-28 guitar in 1968 and gave her first performance at an anti-Vietnam War protest in 1969, playing a song by Phil Ochs.
[7] She enrolled in college at the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) and joined Thinking Students for Peace, a group that protested the Vietnam War and apartheid in South Africa.
[4] In 1972, while an undergrad, she was arrested in Miami at the Republican National Convention where she was protesting Richard Nixon's re-nomination for President of the United States.
[5] She worked for 12 years as a trial attorney, something she said had interested her as way to effect social change, although later she found her music to be a better route for that goal.
[10] From the early 1980s through the 2010s, Feeney served on the board of Pittsburgh's Thomas Merton Center, devoted to advocating for peace and justice causes.
[12] Beginning in 1991, Feeney toured North America and the world to perform and participate in political and labor rallies and events.
Maybe it was Dorothy Day / Some will say Dr. King or Gandhi set them on their way / No matter who your mentors are it's pretty plain to see / That, if you've been to jail for justice, you're in good company.
[18] She put out 12 albums in all,[11] including Union Maid, If I Can't Dance, Have you Been to Jail for Justice?, and Dump the Bosses Off Your Back.
said "finally met his match with the powerful, radical singer-songwriter" Feeney, and called their performances together "highly entertaining.