Kennedy studied at Dublin Institute of Technology and began her journalistic career with a regional newspaper, the Munster Express.
[3] Early in 1987, Kennedy successfully sued the incumbent Charles Haughey-led Fianna Fáil government for illegally tapping her phone.
Kennedy stood in the 1987 general election as a candidate for the newly formed Progressive Democrat party in Dún Laoghaire.
[4] Following her election defeat, Kennedy returned to The Irish Times, then edited by Conor Brady, whom she had worked with at the Tribune when he was the editor.
Later columnist Fintan O'Toole told the Sunday Independent: "We as a paper are not shy of preaching about corporate pay and fat cats but with this there is a sense of excess.
In its judgment, the High Court, criticising her decision to destroy the documents, said it was an "astounding and flagrant disregard of the rule of law".
[9][10] Kennedy announced on 12 March 2011 her intention to retire from The Irish Times by September, after a nine-year term as editor.